Actress Betty White, who is known to generations of viewers for her memorable characters in television shows such as “The Golden Girls” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” will be getting her own postage stamp.
The U.S. Postal Service announced Friday that it would release a stamp in 2025 featuring a digital illustration based on a 2010 photograph by Kwaku Alston of White dressed in purple.
White died in 2021, just three weeks before what would have been her 100th birthday.
In its announcement, the Postal Service described White as “an icon of American television” who shared “her wit and warmth with viewers for seven decades.”
The agency added, “The comedic actor, who gained younger generations of fans as she entered her 90s, was also revered as a compassionate advocate for animals.”
The Postal Service said the 2025 list of stamps was a partial one, and that additional stamps were still to be announced. Another stamp will honor Allen Toussaint, a versatile producer, songwriter, pianist and singer who died in 2015 at age 77.
White had a radio career before shifting to television in 1949, when she appeared on a local talk show called “Al Jarvis’s Hollywood on Television.” When Jarvis left the show, she succeeded him as host.
In the 1950s, she had a few television shows of her own, including two sitcoms and a variety show.
Her breakthrough came later in life, when she was older than 50, with her role as the upbeat but manipulative Sue Ann Nivens on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” from 1973-77, for which she won two Emmy awards. White’s character was the host of a household-hints show on a fictional television station in Minneapolis.
White became best known for her role as the sweet and dim Rose Nylund on “The Golden Girls,” which followed the lives of four older women who shared a house in Miami. The show ran from 1985-92.
In her 80s and 90s, the actress remained a popular presence on television. In 2010, she hosted a Mother’s Day episode of “Saturday Night Live,” which came about because of a spirited social-media campaign by fans. She returned five years later to appear in a sketch for the show’s 40th anniversary.
White also had a scene-stealing role as the widow and caretaker Elka on the sitcom “Hot in Cleveland,” which ran from 2010-15 on TV Land.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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