Betty White appeared on screens big and small throughout her career – and now, she’ll appear on a stamp.
The U.S. Postal Service recently released a sneak peek of its new stamp collection, which will feature everything from animals to celebrities — including “The Golden Girls” star. Her stamp shows a beaming White dressed in a dotted indigo shirt, her full name plastered in bold white lettering alongside the phrase “Forever USA.” Illustrated by Dale Stephanos and designed by USPS’s art director, Greg Breeding, the stamp is a recreation of a 2010 photograph taken by photographer Kwaku Alston.
White’s decades-long career solidified her status as a household (and stamp-worthy) name. She began working in television in the late 1930s, when she broke in as an assistant for a local broadcast station. She then went on to launch her first – and very own – television series, “Life with Elizabeth,” in the 1950s. When reminiscing about it in a published interview with The Hollywood Reporter, she noted: “I was one of the first women producers in Hollywood.”
Yet the work that garnered her true mass attention and popularity – in addition to her lovable turn on “The Mary Tyler-Moore Show,” of course – was her performance as Rose Nylund on the 1980s sitcom “The Golden Girls,” which ran on NBC for seven seasons.
The show highlighted the joys and struggles of four older, single women navigating life together in Miami. White attributed the show’s success to its popularity among young people, who “understood where we were coming from,” White said, in a separate, on-camera interview with The Hollywood Reporter. Another factor, she added, was their age. “There were not that many shows that featured older ladies” – with White adding comedic emphasis to the word “older.”
White was, truly, the epitome of “older” women’s enduring talents and abilities — she continued acting until her death at age 99 in 2021.
White’s stamp, and the series it is part of, is meant to reflect USPS’ commitment to providing “a diverse range of subjects and designs for both philatelists and stamp enthusiasts,” Lisa Bobb-Semple, USPS’ Stamp services director, said in a press release.
Other famed figures featured in the new stamp collection follow suit – for example, the also-upcoming stamp featuring celebrated musician Allen Touissant, who had a large influence on New Orleans’ music scene in the mid-1970s. Touissant’s stamp will also be the 48th stamp in USPS’ Black Heritage series, first launched in 1978 to honor notable Black people throughout history. Women who have been honored with their own stamps in the past include abolitionist Harriet Tubman and women’s rights activist Susan B. Anthony, among others.
Indeed, these stamps are all about legacy, and White’s inclusion continues to prove how many hearts and lives she touched throughout her career. She never took it for granted – as she said to The Hollywood Reporter of her storied career: “I’m the luckiest broad on two feet.”
