Musical wife-husband duo among acts entertaining bureau lines

Singer Sissy Starr wore big crystal-studded glasses with pink lenses to the Christmas Bureau last week. At performance time, she stood behind a custom-built electronic sound system topped by a karaoke-style screen, and she traded the glasses for readers.

The singer, among the handful of acts to perform for the thousands of people who’ve waited in line at the bureau, is 68. She arrived accompanied by her husband, Mike Mosher.

“He’s my toy-boy – he’s 58,” said Sissy Mosher, whose stage name is Starr.

They’ve been a team in life and on the stage for years. She sings; he’s the sound technician. He built her portable sound system.

A highlight of their careers came in 2005, when she did a stint with a Motown show in Branson, Mo.

Now she has arthritis, and he has a heart condition, and their pace has slowed. They’ve been performing for the past couple of years at retirement and assisted-living homes and at Spokane’s Cathedral Plaza Apartments, where they moved a year ago.

As Sissy belted out another holiday song Thursday, someone in line called out a request. “AC/DC!”

Sissy could do it, Mike Mosher said. She knows all kinds of obscure songs.

“She’s really amazing,” he said.

– Adrian Rogers