Betty White is being honored with a U.S. postage stamp this year, and in a recent interview, the designer behind it revealed some hidden details fans can spot on the tribute.
What are some of the hidden details in the Betty White stamp?
The Betty White stamp is set to be issued by the U.S. Postal Service beginning on March 27, 2025. According to the designer, the stamp drew inspiration from a portrait of White taken by Kwaku Alston in 2010 and shows White in the later part of her career.
Speaking to Today, Boston-based illustrator Dale Stephanos opened up about the upcoming stamp honoring White’s life. “It’s just a great photo — a sweet spot in her older years,“ Stephanos said. “I just kind of used that as reference and then kind of changed the colors and tried to make it more handmade than a photo would be.“
The stamp sees White in a stylized portrait, dressed in purple instead of the red that she wore in the original photo, to reflect a protest of sort that Stephanos saw in White’s career and attitude.
“Purple is the color of protest. She had such a positive personality. She never seemed angry, even though protest is a form of anger,” said Stephanos.
Stephanos also tried to include subtle nods to White’s advocacy for animals in the stamp. As a result, White’s earrings in the stamp are in the shape of a paw print. He hopes that people who use the stamp continue to spread positive messages with it. “She was such a positive, funny, witty, bright light,” he said. “I think anything that you want to send with a kind of a positive, happy tone (her stamp) would totally be appropriate.”
For Stephanos, the assignment was “very personal” for him, as he was approved to design the stamp just days before his mother passed away.
“This is now a very, very personal piece for me,“ Stephanos said. “(My mother) got to see her son do something really cool . . . She reminded me of my mother. She had this real ability to say something, and then jaws would drop, and people would be like, ‘Did she really just say that?‘”
“She’s one of those people who could get away with things that a lot of people couldn’t because she was an older lady, and she had that sweet smile, and it’s delivery — it was never mean. It was never mean. It was always good humor, even when she was roasting somebody.”
