Mother Teresa, Gene Autry on upcoming US stamps

The Associated Press, Wednesday, December 30, 2009, 4:09am (PST)

By MSNEnt

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nobel Prize winner Mother Teresa and Pulitzer Prize winner Bill Mauldin will be honored on U.S. postage stamps next year.

Joining them will be Oscar-winning actress Katharine Hepburn, singing cowboy Gene Autry, artist Winslow Homer and Adm. Arleigh Burke.

Other new stamps will honor the Negro baseball leagues, the Sunday funnies and the Hawaiian rain forest, the Postal Service announced Wednesday.

The post office releases a series of commemorative stamps every year, honoring people, places and institutions. These stamps remain on sale for a limited period and are widely collected.

The 2010 new stamp program includes:

— Mother Teresa, the Catholic nun who devoted her life to the sick and poor of India, was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. A stamp in her honor will go on sale on her birthday, Aug. 26.

— Bill Mauldin was one of the nation's favorite cartoonists during World War II, with his characters Willie and Joe bringing home a look at life at the front. He won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished service as a cartoonist and after the war became a popular editorial cartoonist.

— Katharine Hepburn won four Oscars during her long screen career, which included 40 movies opposite such stars as Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart and Spencer Tracy. Her independent personality set her apart from others in Hollywood.

— Singing cowboy and, later, baseball executive Gene Autry will be part of a four-stamp set honoring cowboys of the silver screen. Joining him are William S. Hart, Tom Mix and Roy Rogers.

— In June, stamps will be released honoring Negro Leagues baseball, which operated from 1920 to about 1960, drawing some of the most remarkable athletes ever to play the sport.

— Artist Winslow Homer will be the ninth subject of the American Treasures series. The stamp, being released Aug. 12, features his painting "Boys in a Pasture."

— Arleigh A. Burke will be part of a four-stamp set featuring distinguished sailors. Burke was a top destroyer commander in World War II and played a role in modernizing the Navy. Joining him in the set are William S. Sims, commander of U.S. naval forces in European waters during World War I; John McCloy, one of the few men in the nation's history to earn two Medals of Honor for separate acts of heroism; and Doris Miller, recognized for his actions at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 and the first African-American recognized for heroism in World War II.

— The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games will be marked with a stamp featuring an illustration of a snowboarder.

— On Jan. 14, the Year of the Tiger will be marked with a stamp in the lunar new year series. The new year begins in February.

— El Pueblo Historic Monument in Old Chinatown in Los Angeles will be featured.

— The Mackinac Bridge in Michigan will be shown on the new Priority Mail stamp.

— The new Express Mail stamp will feature the Bixby Creek Bridge in California.

— Abstract Expressionist art will be featured on a stamp containing elements from Barnett Newman's 1952 "Achilles."

— Set four of Flags of Our Nation includes flags of Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina and North Dakota.

— A white woven basket brimming with purple pansies will appear on the 2010 Love stamp.

— A stamp will commemorate celebrated singer Kate Smith, whose signature song, "God Bless America," was composed for her by Irving Berlin.

— Pioneering filmmaker Oscar Micheaux appears on the 33rd stamp in the Black Heritage series.

— Anyone who has enjoyed a Sunday morning with the newspaper comics will appreciate a set of stamps featuring Archie, Beetle Bailey, Dennis the Menace, Garfield and Calvin and Hobbes.

— Scouting will be featured on a stamp to be released in July at the Boy Scout Jamboree at Fort A.P. Hill, Va.

— The Literary Arts series will recall Julia de Burgos, one of Puerto Rico's most celebrated poets.

— the Nature of America stamp set will feature the Hawaiian Rain Forest.

— And the 2010 holiday stamps will feature the foliage of four different evergreens: ponderosa pine, eastern red cedar, blue spruce and balsam fir. The traditional Christmas stamp will feature a lute-playing angel from a fresco painted by 15th century artist Melozzo da Forli.