On October 14, 1999 in New York City, the United States Postal Service formally announced the approval of a stamp honoring Audie Murphy which would be published in the year 2000. On October 16, 1999 the stamp was unveiled in Washington, D.C. with other unveilings to occur later in different cities. On October 24, 1999 an unveiling took place in Dallas, Texas at the city's main post office. An estimated crowd of about 100 friends and supporters of Audie Murphy attended. Among those present were two of Audie Murphy's sisters, Nadine Murphy and Billie Murphy, and a brother, Eugene Murphy. Texas senator Phil Grahmm, Congressman Ralph Hall, Congressman Sam Johnson, Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnston, and Diane and James Thomason, original founders of the stamp petition drive, also attended and were honored. The crowd of onlookers included representatives of nearby American Legion and VFW posts, children, and adults alike. The United States Postal service hosted the ceremony and flew representatives from Washington to conduct the unveiling.
After each elected official spoke, the stamp was then unveiled by Billie Murphy (Audie's youngest sister). The unveiling of the stamp was received with the enthusiastic applause of the crowd. The Murphy family members were grinning from ear to ear and the Thomasons were ecstatic.
In the picture to the right, standing from left to right are Congressman Sam Johnson, Senator Phil Grahmm, Nadine Murphy, Congressman Ralph Hall, Billie Murphy Tindol,Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnston, Diane Thomason, and USPS representative Carl January. NOTE: All of the pictures above were taken by Richard Rodgers, the webmaster. On December 7, 1999, the last photo above appeared in the NATIONAL ENQUIRER. It was provided by the webmaster to the ENQUIRER because the publication needed a photo to accompany a story they were writing about the stamp announcement. Although the photo was given to the ENQUIRER to use without charge, the ENQUIRER failed to properly site the source of the photo. In professional journalism circles, this is a major breach of conduct and is considered unethical. For the record, The ENQUIRER was not present at the ceremony or were they responsible in any way for the photos taken above. |
