Download a 300 dpi image of the stamp at: http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/2007stamps/downloadcenter.htm. Broadcast quality b-roll of the Gerald R. Ford stamp printing process is available via Pathfire and standard broadcast through the USPS Newsroom at http://www.usps.com/news

WASHINGTON, DC — Former First Lady Betty Ford will join Postmaster General John E. Potter on Friday, August 31 to dedicate the stamp bearing her husband's image at 10 a.m., PT in Palm Desert, CA, at the McCallum Theatre. A similar dedication ceremony will occur simultaneously in Grand Rapids, MI, at the President Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum at 1 p.m. ET. The Gerald R. Ford commemorative stamp honoring the Nation's 38th President will be available nationwide Friday, August 31.

“President Ford would be so grateful for the magnificent honor that the Postal Service has created in tribute to his decades of service to the American people,” said Mrs. Betty Ford. “The stamp wonderfully portrays his strength, warmth, and compassion. My family and I are filled with pride and gratitude for this remarkable tribute to our beloved husband, father, and grandfather.”

Mrs. Ford will be joined at the McCallum Theatre ceremony by her children Jack Ford and Susan Ford Bales and by several of her grandchildren.

President and Mrs. Ford's son Michael Ford will dedicate the stamp in Grand Rapids with U.S. Postal Service Executive Director Rosa Fulton. President Ford's brother, Richard A. Ford, will be present at the Grand Rapids dedication.

“We owe President Ford an immense debt of gratitude,” said Postmaster General Potter, “as a man who put his nation first; as a man who was guided by what he read in his heart, and as a man who succeeded in his goal to make this great government work for the good of all Americans.”

The Postal Service produced 80 million 41-cent stamps in sheets of 20 that will be available for sale Friday, August. 31. Stamp artist Michael J. Deas of Brooklyn Heights, NY, created the stamp under the direction of stamp designer Ethel Kessler of Bethesda, MD.

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Please Note: For broadcast quality video and audio, photo stills and other media resources, visit the USPS Newsroom at http://about.usps.com/news/welcome.htm.

For reporters interested in speaking with a regional Postal Service public relations professional on this issue, please go to http://about.usps.com/news/media-contacts/usps-local-media-contacts.pdf.

A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 151 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $65 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 35th in the 2011 Fortune 500. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency for six years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.

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