Oveta Culp Passion is only one of six Houstonians featured on postage stamps.
Postage stamps (bear in mind snail mail?) are a storied American custom. Earlier than we had social media, the last word recognition in America (in need of turning into president) was to be honored on a US postage stamp. Neglect clicks, we’re speaking about licks!
Since 1847, the US Postal Service has issued stamps commemorating presidents and different notable Individuals, in addition to their achievements, occasions, and anniversaries. To intensify the dignity, the Postal Service solely options deceased people after three years; US Presidents are an exception and usually obtain the dignity shortly after their passing.
Whereas Houston doesn’t get to vote on who amongst us is exalted on a stamp, we are able to cheer on our mates and neighbors who’re acknowledged on this means. Are you able to consider solely six Houstonians have had the dignity?
Regardless of Houston’s lengthy and colourful historical past, the USPS has historically ignored House Metropolis. It was solely as just lately as 2011 that Oveta Culp Passion, the spouse of former Texas governor William Passion, grew to become the primary Houstonian to be positioned on a stamp. Regardless of her high-profile marriage, Oveta solid her personal path. Throughout World Conflict II, she was the founding commanding officer of the US Ladies’s Military Corps, enabling 1000’s of girls to serve within the beforehand restricted military. President Dwight D. Eisenhower additionally appointed her secretary of what’s now the US Division of Well being and Human Companies not lengthy after it was established. Like many noteworthy Houstonians, Passion wasn’t born right here, and, although residing a lifetime of privilege, she by no means ceased serving Houston and the nation.
That very same yr, on September 16, 2011, the Postal Service honored the late US Congresswoman Barbara Jordan. As the primary Southern Black girl elected to the US Home of Representatives, Jordan represented Houston’s 18th District for 3 phrases, from 1973 to 1979. She was a champion of the disenfranchised and an advocate for all Houstonians, a lady who befriended influential political figures. President Lyndon B. Johnson was a buddy and mentor; President Jimmy Carter, then-governor of Georgia, thought-about inviting her to be his operating mate; and President Invoice Clinton mentioned nominating her to the Supreme Court docket. Anybody who ever heard her converse knew it of their bones. She communicated with authority, authenticity, and the hearth of reality. She gave a voice to the unvoiced and spoke reality to energy.
Congresswoman Barbara Jordan was the second Houstonian honored with a stamp.
Two years later, the Postal Service drew inspiration from our booming music scene, honoring Lydia Mendoza, a local Houstonian and Tejano music famous person. Born in 1916, Mendoza, nicknamed La Alondra de la Frontera (the Meadowlark of the Border), was famend for her signature sound, which included her distinctive strumming of a 12-string guitar. The singer’s seven-decade profession earned her a spot on a stamp in 2013.
Houston’s most presidential pair made their mark, too. In 2019, the late President George H. W. Bush grew to become the fourth Houstonian to obtain the tribute, and his spouse, First Woman Barbara Bush, adopted go well with in June 2025. Bush’s ties to Houston attain again to 1959, when he relocated his household and younger oil firm to Bayou Metropolis. The politician represented conservative West Houston within the seventh Congressional District of Texas and was the primary Republican from the town to serve in Congress. He was elected president in 1988 and took delight in showcasing Houston to the world at occasions such because the G7 Financial Summit and the 1992 Republican Nationwide Conference. Out of workplace, he and Barbara Bush cut up their time between their residence in Tanglewood and the household residence in Kennebunkport, Maine. In 1997, Houston Intercontinental Airport was renamed in his honor, and the Bushes have remained probably the most well-known Houston {couples}. In 2018, Barbara Bush handed away, and months later, George H. W. Bush adopted. The nation commemorated their lives with days of native and nationwide observance, together with companies in Washington, DC, and Houston, earlier than they had been laid to relaxation on the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in School Station. To this point, the Bushes are the one Houston-based couple to be individually honored.
Texas legend Sam Houston was additionally featured by the US Postal Service.
The Quick-Timers
Whereas not full-time Houstonians, a number of notable figures with ties to the town have additionally appeared on stamps. Earlier than he entered politics, Lyndon B. Johnson, a local of Stonewall, taught public talking at Sam Houston Excessive Faculty and lived in Westmoreland. Quick story author O. Henry made Houston his residence for a short while whereas working as a columnist for the Houston Put up. Astronauts Alan Shepard, Jr., and Sally Journey, who relocated to the realm for coaching, acquired their very own postage stamps, too.
And simply in case you had been questioning, Sam Houston has appeared on not one, however two stamps—first in 1936, alongside Stephen F. Austin to commemorate the Alamo, after which, solo, in 1964. Although he’s the town’s namesake, many don’t think about Sam Houston a real Houstonian. The previous basic by no means lived within the metropolis full-time—not even throughout his tenure as president of the Republic of Texas, or when the newly based city of Houston served because the capital of the Lone Star State (it later relocated to Austin in 1839). Following Houston’s first time period as president, he represented San Augustine within the Texas Home of Representatives. Later, he lived in Austin, the place he served as president once more and governor. He took his skills to Washington, DC, as senator and returned residence to Texas, the place he retired in Huntsville. Let’s simply name him a “Pre-Houstonian.”
Future Honorees: Who’s Subsequent?
Whereas Houston boasts a good checklist of native notables featured on stamps, there are quite a few deserving Houstonians who make the town proud. Right here is my checklist of attainable future honorees, in no specific order:
John Biggers
One among Houston’s premier Black visible artists, Biggers taught artwork to generations of Black college students, serving as the top of Texas Southern College’s artwork division in 1949.
Denton Cooley
A medical vanguard who changed a human coronary heart with a short lived mechanical coronary heart in 1969, Cooley based the Texas Coronary heart Institute.
Michael DeBakey
Pioneering coronary heart surgeon and medical innovator, DeBakey served in World Conflict II and helped develop Cellular Military Surgical Hospital (MASH) items and the Veterans Administration Medical Heart Analysis System. He was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969, the Nationwide Medal of Science, and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2008. Enjoyable reality: DeBakey is the primary Houstonian to lie in repose in metropolis corridor.
Gerald Hines
Everybody in Houston, whether or not they realize it or not, is aware of Gerald Hines. An actual property developer and founding father of one of many largest actual property corporations on this planet, Hines is answerable for developing iconic Houston landmarks, together with the Financial institution of America constructing, Chase Tower, the Galleria, One Shell Plaza, Pennzoil Place, and the Transco/Williams Tower.
Howard Hughes, Jr.
A polymath and Houston native, Hughes’s fingerprint is on almost each Houston business. An industrialist, inventor, film producer, and aviator, Hughes inherited his father’s oil gear enterprise and have become one of many wealthiest males in twentieth-century America.
Molly Ivins
This beloved, outspoken, and opinionated journalist and creator specialised in skewering politicians and sacred cows. Figurative and literal hell raiser.
Jesse Jones
Mr. Houston, and nobody else comes shut. A lumber industrialist, actual property developer, banker, and philanthropist, Jones constructed Houston’s first skyscrapers and helped finance the Ship Channel. Jones was additionally appointed to the Reconstruction Finance Company, which grew to become the nation’s main monetary establishment in the course of the Nice Despair. President Franklin Roosevelt even appointed him Secretary of Commerce. He and his spouse established the Houston Endowment in 1937.
Ninfa Laurenzo
Restaurateur, philanthropist, and founding father of landmark Tex-Mex restaurant Ninfa’s, “Mama Ninfa” popularized fajitas and Tex-Mex delicacies basically.
Larry McMurtry
Creator Larry McMurtry attended Rice College and later taught there within the Sixties. McMurtry then wrote a number of the greatest books set in Houston, together with Shifting On and Phrases of Endearment, later successful the Pulitzer Prize for the epic Texas western, Lonesome Dove.
Patrick Swayze
Attending Waltrip Excessive Faculty and coaching as a dancer, the actor soared as a troublesome man, a greaser, and a ghost in hit motion pictures of the Nineteen Eighties and ’90s.
Who would you add to this checklist? Ship your solutions to the Residents’ Stamp Advisory Committee.
