The world-renown “first lady of song” will be featured at the Orangeburg Post Office as part of a popular commemorative stamp series of the U.S. Postal Service.

The USPS is continuing its Black Heritage stamp series with the recognition of a famed African-American singer as its 30th inductee.

The commemorative stamp honoring Ella Fitzgerald went on sale Wednesday at post offices across the nation. The stamp image of Fitzgerald is based on a photograph taken around 1956 that captures the happiness and exuberance Fitzgerald brought to music. Widely known as “The First Lady of Song,” Fitzgerald is cited by the USPS as being famous for her extraordinary vocal range and flexibility, along with her gift for pitch, rhythmic sense and flawless diction.

The stamps will sell for 39 cents.

“It’s one of the most beautiful stamps we’ve had. We got 20,000 of them, so we’ll have plenty. We’ll have a steady supply of them so that we don’t run out. We sell a lot of Black Heritage stamps,” Orangeburg Postmaster Andre Small said.

Harry Spratlin, spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service’s Greater South Carolina District, said, “Black Heritage stamps always sell out in Orangeburg, and offices with slower sales will redistribute their stamps to (Orangeburg). Last year in Orangeburg, we sold 6,000 of the Judy Garland commemorative, an average number. Hattie McDaniel, the Black Heritage stamp for 2006, sold 120,000.”

The Black Heritage stamps are commemorative stamps which have a limited printing, usually lasting a year. They are often collector’s items. The U.S. Postal Service began the Black Heritage series in 1978 with a stamp honoring abolitionist Harriet Tubman.

“We’ve got quite a few people that collect those stamps that just come in and get them,” Small said. He said other Black Heritage stamps sold at the Orangeburg Post Office, including those bearing the images of civil rights pioneer Martin Luther King Jr., famed opera singer Marian Anderson and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, have all sold well.

Other African-American notables who have been featured in the series include tennis player Arthur Ashe, Olympic sprinter Wilma Rudolph and Paul Robeson, an accomplished athlete, actor, singer and activist.

Customers can order the Black Heritage series online at The Postal Store at www.usps.com/shop, or by phone at 800-STAMP24. More information on stamps that have been issued related to minorities and minority issues can be found online at www.usps.com/cpim/ftp/pubs/pub354/welcome.htm.

-- T&D Staff Writer Dionne Gleaton can be reached by e-mail at dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5534. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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