The chance to draw Betty White for a U.S. postage stamp was an easy “yes” for Boston-based illustrator Dale Stephanos.
“I said ‘yes’ before they finished the sentence,” he recalls in an interview with TODAY.com.
White died in 2021 at the age of 99. Now, the late actor, known for her roles in “The Golden Girls” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” is being honored with Forever Stamp issued by the U.S. Postal Service starting March 27.
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WATCH HEREThe stamp celebrates White’s decades-long entertainment career and her advocacy for animals, an element subtly woven into Stephanos’s design.
For Stephanos, who has spent decades creating portraits for outlets like Rolling Stone, Mad Magazine, and Sports Illustrated, the Betty White stamp was particularly meaningful. The illustrator learned his conception for the stamp had been approved just days before his mother died.
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“This is now a very, very personal piece for me,“ he says. “(My mother) got to see her son do something really cool.”
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Stephanos recalls gathering around a television with his family to watch White on TV. His grandmother had also been named Betty, and in her final days, his mother, despite being in poor health, saw the design go viral.
Stephanos recognized something familiar in White’s trademark blend of wit and warmth — qualities that reminded him of home.
“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?‘“ he says. “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.”
For the stamp, Stephanos drew inspiration from a portrait of White taken by Kwaku Alston in 2010. Alston’s photograph shows White in the later part of her career, wearing red, eyes bright with her signature spark.
“It’s just a great photo — a sweet spot in her older years,“ he says. “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.“
Stephanos’ image is a stylized portrait of White dressed in purple instead of red to reflect a deeper part of White’s legacy.
“Purple is the color of protest. She had such a positive personality. She never seemed angry, even though protest is a form of anger,” he says.
Even the earring he chose for White was selected with care.
Stephanos sought a subtle way to reflect Betty White’s animal advocacy in the stamp after her estate requested it be part of the design. One morning, Stephanos noticed his wife’s animal-print dress and shiny earrings. He looked down and realized he had drawn a paw print, and an idea clicked.
“I was like, ‘Oh, wait a minute. We could just do a paw print earring,” he says.
The small but meaningful detail was ultimately approved and became part of the final stamp, which can be seen on White’s right ear in the portrait.
Stephanos thinks of stamps as “little pieces of art” that “dress up our correspondence.”
“I know when I get something with an interesting stamp, I take a second, I look at it and appreciate it. I think it’s one of the great things that humans have figured out: a way to communicate in this way,” he says.
It’s part of why White’s stamp means so much to him.
“This is the only stamp I’m going to use for the rest of my life,“ he says with a laugh. “I’m going to be so obnoxious with this.”
When asked what kind of message he’d send with it, his answer is certain.
“She was such a positive, funny, witty, bright light,” he says. “I think anything that you want to send with a kind of a positive, happy tone (her stamp) would totally be appropriate.”
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
