Betty White, beloved actress from The Golden Girls, is honored on a US stamp

U.S. Postal Service celebrated the late actress Betty White on Thursday, March 27 in a ceremony at the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens, unveiling a new Forever stamp with a portrait of the beloved TV and film entertainer that features her impish grin and playful eyes.

The USPS said in its press release, “White’s spritely smirk will smarten up the day for any recipient of First-Class Mail bearing the new Forever stamp.”

In a prepared statement, Amber McReynolds, chairwoman of the USPS Board of Governors, described White’s more than 80 years as an entertainer, saying, “With this stamp, we honor and remember the beloved ‘First Lady of Television’ and the enduring mark she left on our American culture.”

White began in early radio in 1930, and launched her television career in 1939. Among her many shows on TV, she played the title role in “Life With Elizabeth,” a 1950s sitcom about a newlywed couple. She co-created and produced the nationally broadcast show, making her one of the first women to achieve that level in the industry.

USPS described White’s early TV years in colorful detail, noting that she wore her high school graduation dress and “sang and danced highlights from the operetta ‘The Merry Widow’ in an experimental broadcast seen only by a small audience on an early television set located five floors below the studio.”

In “The Golden Girls,” White took on a new character, described by the USPS as “sweetly naive and apt to launch into rambling tales of her preposterous hometown, the fictional St. Olaf, MN.” Her innovative series about the lives of older women was so popular that it went for seven years. Despite her busy career, she was recognized as an animal rights advocate.

White never really retired and died in December 2021 just short of her 100th birthday.