Not the Claude Pepper we remember

The beloved Florida politician was the embodiment of aging with dignity. Why, then, does he look so young on the the postal stamp honoring him?

By STEPHEN NOHLGREN

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 26, 1999

The U.S. Postal Service will add to its "Great Americans" series next year by affixing the face of Claude Pepper to a 33-cent stamp.

It's hard to imagine a more worthy honoree.

Pepper's career as a Florida senator and congressman spanned six decades and seven presidents, from his friend FDR to the first George Bush.

An unabashed New Dealer, Pepper cared deeply for the poor, the vulnerable and, above all, the elderly. He chaired the House aging committee. He protected Social Security and Medicare benefits like a junkyard Doberman.

All of which makes the stamp's version of Pepper's face a bit disappointing.

Ontario artist Mark Summers' technique is intriguing enough. He covers a wax surface with black ink, then scratches off white lines until the image emerges. Barnes & Noble liked this "scratch board" style so much it bought dozens of Summers' works for advertisements, posters and shopping bags.

But as Summers scratched away at Pepper, decades dissolved from his face. The cheeks and chin came out thin and angular, the hair full and neat. The Pepper on the stamp looks about 50 or 60 and fit as triathlete.

There's nothing wrong with commemorating luminaries at different stages in their lives. For example, Audie Murphy's squirrelly cheeks and World War II helmet give his stamp a fine, youthful-soldier look.

But Claude Pepper embodied aging at its best. When he died of cancer at 88, he was the oldest member of Congress. He was vital and powerful. By lending his campaign support in the right congressional district, he could swing an election.

His face was classic old Southern pol: Bulbous nose, droopy eyes, jug ears, what he called his "turkey waddle" neck and well-worn cheeks that flapped like bellows when he set off on one of his legendary orations.

"That's how most people alive today remember him," said Frances Campbell, Pepper's longtime chief of staff and president of the Pepper Foundation in Tallahassee. "I don't think he cared much about his appearance. It wasn't important. What was important was the people and their well-being."

Claude Pepper [Times files ]

Because he had never met Pepper, Summers had to work from photographs -- primarily one taken in 1988, a year before he died, according to the Postal Service. Summers said he didn't intentionally make Pepper look younger. He just added cosmetic touches.

"You want to be complimentary to a subject," Summers said. "I made sure his hair was nicely combed. He had a slight squint in one eye, so I opened them up. I gave him more of a smile."

The Postal Service ran the sketch past Campbell, who thought Pepper looked awfully thin about the face. But she kept quiet about it. "We were just so pleased that they decided to honor him in that way," she said. "I didn't want to be disgruntled and too strong in my opinion."

Members of the public nominate about 50,000 people and subjects a year for commemorative stamps. Those are winnowed down by a volunteer board of historians and stamp enthusiasts, including actor Karl (speaking of classic old faces) Malden. Besides Pepper and Audie Murphy, other new stampees include Gen. Omar Bradley, author Thomas Wolfe, astronomer Edwin Hubble, World War I hero Alvin York, former HUD secretary Patricia Harris and cartoon combatants Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner.

Within weeks of Pepper's death, Congress passed a resolution urging the Postal Service to honor him with a stamp. But because the service doesn't put individuals on stamps until they've been dead at least 10 years, the Pepper stamp had to wait. Its release date isn't set, Glover said, other than it will circulate in the fall and mark the 100th year after Pepper's birth.

The stamp marks a technical departure in the Great Americans series, said art director Richard Sheaff. Before, artists always made traditional, literal engravings, but Summers was encouraged to stylize with Pepper.

"We wanted him to abstract a little, to make it his," Sheaff said. "Not just copy a photo."

Summers had to fight a persistent urge toward caricature. "The man had a really cool nose and ears," Summers said. "Had I felt I had a free rein, I might have gone to town on those."

Instead, he flattered Pepper within the bounds of his artistic charge.

And an opportunity was lost to freeze-frame a wonderful old man at the peak of his glory.\

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