About This Stamp
On the 100th anniversary of his birth, the U.S. Postal Service honored Claude Denson Pepper, a champion of rights for the elderly, with the issuance of this stamp, the second in the Distinguished Americans series. Pepper was born near Dudleyville, Alabama, on September 8, 1900. He graduated from the University of Alabama in 1921 and from Harvard Law School in 1924.
Claude Pepper, a Democrat from Florida, served in both the U.S. Senate (1936–1951) and the U.S. House of Representatives (1963–1989). From 1977 to 1983, Mr. Pepper was chairman of the House Select Committee on Aging; in 1983, he was named chairman of the House Rules Committee. In these positions of influence, Pepper continued to focus on the needs of the elderly, with particular emphasis on Social Security and Medicare programs.
Claude Pepper died in Washington, D.C., on May 30, 1989. Five days earlier, on May 25, 1989, President George Bush presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civil award of the U.S. government.