The United States Postal Service (USPS)
has announced that the late astronaut Sally Ride will be featured on
a Forever stamp next year.
“Icons such as Lena Horne, John
Lennon and Sally Ride will be immortalized on Forever stamps next
year,” the USPS said in a
press release. Fred Rogers, known as Mister Rogers, will also
receive his own stamp.
Ride, the first American woman in
space, passed away in 2012 at the age of 61 after losing a prolonged
17-month battle with pancreatic cancer. She also held the
distinction of being the youngest American in space and the first
lesbian, though she never spoke about her private life in public.
In 2013, then-President Barack Obama
awarded the Medal of Freedom to Ride. Tam O'Shaughnessy, who was
introduced as Ride's life partner, accepted the award on behalf of
Ride.
O'Shaughnessy told the Human Rights
Campaign (HRC) that they kept their relationship quiet over fears of
losing funding for the Sally Ride Science Foundation, which they
founded in 2001. The couple, however, did enter a domestic
partnership in California.
Other stamps will celebrate the Year of
the Dog, the 200th anniversary of Illinois statehood and
one of the nation's most beloved songs, America the Beautiful.