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USPS Unveils New Stamp at Mizzou Featuring Beetle Bailey
Posted: August 25, 2010
Mizzou Botanic Garden, the Mizzou Alumni Association and the U.S. Postal Service are joining ranks with the Mizzou ROTC at an unveiling ceremony Aug. 27, for the recently released Beetle Bailey postage stamp.
The ceremony begins at 11 a.m. with Mizzou’s favorite comic-strip character, Beetle Bailey, arriving in a vintage WWII Jeep at the Beetle Bailey sculpture north of Donald W. Reynolds Alumni Center. Chancellor Emeritus Richard Wallace will join Beetle Bailey and Columbia’s Postmaster Cindy Bolles, along with Mort Walker’s assistant, Bill Janocha, to unveil the stamp.
Whenever the Postal Service knows of a tie-in to a stamp, it plans a stamp unveiling ceremony. Cheryl Hudson, USPS customer relations coordinator, says they knew cartoonist Mort Walker was an MU graduate (BA ’48), and were familiar with the history of The Shack (a hangout frequented by Walker during his student days) and the Beetle Bailey sculpture that greets visitors entering the Donald W. Reynolds Alumni Center.
An artist's rendering of "The Shack", the college hangout where Walker created Beetle Bailey.
“We contacted the university to see if there was any interest in holding a ceremony on campus,” she says. Enthusiasm ran high, and plans got under way.
Created in 1950, the Beetle Bailey comic strip is set in a U.S. Army military post. Most of the humor revolves around the characters stationed at Camp Swampy, inspired by Camp Crowder, south of Neosho, Mo., where Walker had once been stationed while in the Army. Over the years, Walker has often inscribed names of college buddies on Beetle’s comic strip booth, paying homage to his alma mater and the good times he had at Mizzou.
The Beetle Bailey & Sargent Snorkel stamp is one of five in the “Sunday Funnies” series released July 16. Others include Calvin & Hobbes, Archie, Garfield and Dennis the Menace.
The comic strip turns 60 on Sept. 4, and Mizzou Botanic Garden was designated a botanic garden on Aug. 26, 1999, so the event is also a celebration of sorts. The ceremony begins at 11 a.m., Friday, Aug. 27, and is free and open to the public.
To view a PDF of the Mizzou Botanic Garden brochure detailing the Beetle Bailey stamp unveiling, please click here.