Now in her third week of retirement from News Channel 5’s popular news feature show “Talk of the Town,” and many more to go, Tuwanda Coleman has plenty of time to reflect on her four-decade journalism career.
And it takes her back to her homestead on Tuggle Road in Trigg County.
One of seven children to the late Clean Sr. and Minnie, she was the sixth born in the bunch, and told the News Edge it’s here where she acted out and performed for the family.
This eventually led to her wanting to take part in speech, debate and forensics alongside Mary Rutherford at Trigg County High School, despite being somewhat shy in front of the class.
Coleman said Rutherford urged her to watch television, and the developing career of Oprah Winfrey — who at the time was the new Black female hard-news anchor for News Channel 5 in Nashville.
While at “The Hill” in Bowling Green, Coleman majored in broadcasting with an emphasis in news reporting, but even then didn’t think she’d ever be in front of the camera.
Two weeks before college graduation, she decided she didn’t want to “be the next Oprah Winfrey,” but still wanted to be involved in writing, producing and working some way in the television industry.
Her advisor reached out to News Channel 5 for “behind-the-scenes” jobs, and two weeks after walking the stage, she became the first, and only, woman among 12 or so men to serve the station as a camera operator.
It was this step, she added, that helped her realize she wasn’t embracing her full potential — and the things she wanted to do…tell stories, put ideas to paper, stretch her mind…were well within reach.
She applied for “Talk of the Town” three times over 10 years, seeking to be a producer, and the station’s community services director stepped forward and vouched for Coleman to new management in Landmark. A six-month position as associate producer translated to another 10 years as producer for the show.
Always a different job. Always a different challenge. Always something new. She said that’s why she stayed at News Channel 5 all those years.
Aside from soft local and regional news dealing with daily living, including several stops in Trigg County, she was able to meet scads of celebrities: among them Julie Andrews, Don Knotts, Garth Brooks, Miranda Lambert, Dolly Parton, Matthew McConaughey and Bradley Cooper.
She also got to serve as a mentor to incoming employees and interns, especially women.
Tips she has for the next journalist out of Trigg County or elsewhere? Finish school and earn a degree. Watch someone that’s admired, and pick up their delivery. Work on writing and interviewing skills. Get comfortable with ad-lib and top-of-the-head thinking.
Coleman said she will be returning to Cadiz and Trigg County soon, for several special occasions.
ACCOLADES:
— She’s actively involved in the community, serving the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt Advisory Board, the National Association of Television Arts and Sciences, the Oasis Center, YMCA Black Achievers, Nashville Film Festival and Youth About Business, and remains a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
— In 1995, she earned a Mid-South regional Emmy nomination for a series of Black History Month tributes, and in 2007 she was nominated for her work on a NewsChannel5 special highlighting the hit Broadway musical, “The Lion King.”
— And in 2015, she was named the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals “Television Media Person of the Year,” an award given for more than 30 years of dedication and efforts to promote and raise funds for the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.
