It was a “golden” morning at the Oak Park Post Office last Friday, as U.S. Postal Service officials unveiled a new stamp paying tribute to the late Betty White.
Following a ceremony in Los Angeles March 28, the USPS held the local event in the village honoring the new forever stamp that pays tribute to the iconic actress, who was born in Oak Park in 1922 before her family moved to Los Angeles a year later. The stamps are now for sale in booklets of 20 and will always be available for purchase at the same cost as first-class mail 1-ounce postage, according to the USPS.
White Died in December of 2021, just a few weeks before her 100th birthday.
“It’s unfortunate that postal stamps are issued after people’s deaths, we would have loved to do this while she was alive,” said USPS district manager Jeff Drake. “But it’s still an honor to do this and dedicate this stamp to her wonderful life.”
Highlights of White’s long television career include her Emmy-winning performances as the beloved characters Sue Ann Nivens on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and Rose Nylund on “The Golden Girls.” She also hosted “Saturday Night Live” in 2010.
Oak Park Village President Vicki Scaman said she was honored to help celebrate White during Women’s History Month.
“Oak Park takes pride in being Betty White’s birthplace, celebrating her legacy as one of Hollywood’s most beloved actresses,” she said. “Betty was a fierce champion of human rights, the treatment of animals as well as female entrepreneurship.”
Event attendees were treated to printouts of the stamp portrait, refreshments and angelic renditions of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “The Golden Girls” theme song “Thank You for Being a Friend” by Kalind Haynes, a downtown Chicago USPS letter carrier and accomplished gospel singer.
The portrait on the stamp, done by illustrator Dale Stephanos, depicts White in her later years flashing her signature warm smile. The portrait also contains a subtle reference to her activism on behalf of animal welfare causes like the American Humane Society and the Los Angeles Zoo, as White is shown wearing a paw print earing.
“Being remembered for Rose and Sue Ann and the others would be wonderful,” White told The Chicago Sun-Times in 1990. “But I also want to be remembered as a lady who helped the animals.”
While White only lived in Oak Park as an infant, several of her family members remained in the village for decades. White fondly recalled visiting the “old house on Taylor Avenue” where several generations of her extended family lived together as a child, in a letter she penned in response to an inquiry by local historians in 1989, according to Frank Lipo of the Oak Park River Forest Museum.
“I will let Betty have the last word today, in her own words,” Lipo said quoting the letter. “Betty wrote ‘P.S. I’m always careful to explain I was born in Oak Park, not Chicago.’”