About This Stamp
In 2019, the U.S. Postal Service® honored extraordinary tennis champion Maureen Connolly Brinker (1934–1969). In the early 1950s, the 5-foot-4-inch dynamo dominated her sport. Nicknamed “Little Mo,” she used powerful groundstrokes to become the first woman to win all four major tennis tournaments in a calendar year.
The stamp features an oil-on-linen painting of the tennis star. Based on a black-and-white photograph taken in 1952, the portrait is a colorful interpretation of Connolly hitting a low volley. Her nickname, “Little Mo,” runs across the top of the stamp, and “usa” and “forever” appear in the bottom right corner.
In 1953, she became the first woman to capture the single-season Grand Slam of tennis, winning the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Championships. Along the way, she dropped only a single set. Since then, no American singles player has won all four majors in a calendar year. Only two men and three women in total have achieved that feat.
From 1951 to 1954, Connolly amassed nine major singles titles and three major doubles titles. For three years in a row, she was the top-ranked player in the world. She won both Wimbledon (1952–1954) and the U.S. Championships (1951–1953) three consecutive years. In Wightman Cup play, she didn't lose a singles match and propelled the United States to four championships. For her accomplishments, The Associated Press named her its “Woman Athlete of the Year” three straight years (1951–1953).
Connolly's brilliant career ended abruptly in July 1954 when she severely injured her leg in a horseback riding accident. In 1955, Connolly married Norman Brinker, who was part of the U.S. equestrian team at the 1952 Summer Olympics. He competed in the Modern Pentathlon Championships in 1954. They lived in Dallas and had two daughters. After her playing career, Connolly Brinker coached tennis and wrote articles about the game she once dominated. In 1968, she was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. That year, she co-founded the Maureen Connolly Brinker Tennis Foundation (MCB). Over the last 50 years, MCB has pioneered junior tennis development throughout the United States and worldwide.
Art director Derry Noyes designed the stamp.
Stamp Art Director, Designer, and Typographer
Derry Noyes
For more than 40 years Derry Noyes has designed and provided art direction for close to 800 United States postage stamps and stamp products. She holds a bachelor of arts degree from Hampshire College and a master of fine arts degree from Yale University.
Noyes worked as a graphics designer at Beveridge and Associates, a Washington, D.C., firm, until 1979 when she established her own design firm, Derry Noyes Graphics. Her clients have included museums, corporations, foundations, and architectural and educational institutions. Her work has been honored by American Illustration, the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington, Communication Arts, Critique magazine, Graphis, Creativity International, and the Society of Illustrators.
Before becoming an art director for the U.S. Postal Service, she served as a member of the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee from 1981 to 1983.
Noyes is a resident of Washington, D.C.
Stamp Artist
Gregory Manchess
Painter Gregory Manchess has worked as a freelance illustrator for nearly forty years on advertising campaigns, magazines, and book covers. His work has appeared on covers and in feature stories for National Geographic magazine, TIME, The Atlantic Monthly, and Smithsonian Magazine.
Noting his passion for history, the National Geographic Society sent Manchess on an expedition to record the exploits of explorer, David Thomson. The Society also chose his work to illustrate the traveling exhibition, Real Pirates: The Untold Story of The Whydah, from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship. His large portrait of Abraham Lincoln and seven other paintings of moments from Lincoln’s life are exhibited at the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois.
The artist has illustrated children’s books, including Nanuk: Lord of the Ice and Cheyenne Medicine Hat, written by Brian Heinz, and To Capture the Wind by author Sheila MacGill-Callahan.
Manchess is included in Walt Reed’s edition of The Illustrator in America, 1860-2000. Widely awarded within the industry, he exhibits frequently at the Society of Illustrators in New York. The Society presented him with its highest honor, the coveted Hamilton King Award.
Today, Manchess divides his time between New York and Kentucky, his native state. He lectures frequently at universities and colleges nationwide, gives painting workshops at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA, and teaches at the Illustration Master Class in Amherst, MA.
His figure and portrait work has led to numerous commissions for stamps by the U.S. Postal Service, including Oregon Statehood (2009), Mark Twain (2011), The 1963 March On Washington (2013), five paintings for Enjoy the Great Outdoors (2020), and ten for Snowy Beauty (2022).