Mail will take center stage in Nashville next week when the National Postal Forum — the mailing and shipping industry’s largest annual conference — gets underway at the Gaylord Opryland Convention Center on Sunday, April 27.
At the nearby Grand Ole Opry, country music icons not only grace the stage but pick up their mail there, too.
Every current member of the Opry, which marks 100 years of broadcasting this year, has their own mailbox located backstage.
“The mailboxes are one of my favorite spots in the Opry House and it’s a popular stop on our visitor tour,” said Dan Rogers, the Opry’s senior vice president and executive producer.
The mailboxes are a tradition carried over from the Ryman Auditorium, which was the Grand Ole Opry’s home from 1943-1974.
All Opry members have a numbered mailbox. They are for the most part in alphabetical order — with notable exceptions.
“When Little Jimmy Dickens was alive, he wasn’t tall enough to reach the Ds, so we moved his mailbox lower among the Ts and Rs,” Rogers said.
Dickens, who stood at 4 feet 11 inches, dropped in regularly to check his mailbox, but most artists catch up on their mail when they come in to perform, Rogers said.
Before becoming an Opry member in 1961, Bill Anderson — a singer, songwriter and TV host — often made guest appearances at the Opry.
“I recall in those years walking by the mailboxes and thinking how cool it would be to have my very own,” he said.
Anderson, who is the Opry’s longest-serving member, had one of the original mailboxes from the Ryman Auditorium.
His “A” last name always afforded him one of the lower number mailboxes, and he has long held the No. 2 slot.
For many years, Anderson was second to Roy Acuff, who held the No. 1 slot. When Acuff died, Anderson moved up — only to get bumped back to the second position when Trace Adkins became an Opry member.
“I tell him if only he spelled Adkins the more traditional way like Chet Atkins, then I would still be at number one,” Anderson said.
According to Rogers, the Opry once received a piece of mail addressed with only a sketch of entertainer Minnie Pearl’s famous hat with the price tag.
“It didn’t even include her name, but she was so well-known that it made its way to us and then on to her,” he said.
After the mail is delivered to the Opry Post Office, the programming and artist relations staff members sort and place the letters in each artist’s mailbox.
There are 100 mailboxes for individual or group artists. For example, bandmates that are Opry members such as Lady A or Little Big Town share the same mailbox.
Mail is often bundled and forwarded on to wherever Opry members are presently located.
“We will get notes from all around the world and receive as much international mail as we do domestic,” Rogers said.
Rogers has a special affinity for the Opry Post Office because it reminds him of his grandfather, Dwight Rogers, who was the postmaster of Xenia, IL.
His grandfather gave him an old Post Office box which he keeps in his office.
“When I look up at that box, I think of him and when I go past the Opry Post Office, I wonder what he would think of me growing up to work in a far different Post Office than the one he did, but a fascinating one for sure.”
