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Show U.S. Stamp Honors Rural Electric History The U.S. Postal Service, will observe the 50th Anniversary of the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) on May 11, 1985 with the issuance of a special commemorative stamp. The first day of issue ceremony will take pake in Madison, SD, the headquarters town of East River Electric Cooperative, a generating and transmision rural electric system that provides power to 243 distribution cooperatives and one municipal system. Altogether, the power-supply cooperative provides electricity for nearly 200,000 people in South Dakota and western Minnesota. Special guests at the May 11 event will include U.S. Postmaster General Paul N. Carlin, who will officially issue the stamp, members of the South Dakota delegation of the U.S. Congress, and Vernon C. Williams, president of the national Rural Electric Cooperative Association. Invited guests will include the stamp's designer, Howard Koslow, an artist who also has the Brooklyn Bridge commemorative stamp' and the Tennessee i Valley Authority commemorative stamp to his credit. The South Dakota site was chosen for the first day of issue because of the importance of agriculture to the state and because of the emphatic influence rural electrification has had on making American agriculture and the agrarian lifestyle more productive. As with most commemoratives, the Postal Service will print 160 million REA stamps. They will go on sale May 11, the first day of Issue, and will be sold for about 60 to 90 days through local post offices. First day of issue postmarks can be obtained at the opening day ceremonies in Madison or through written requests to the Postal Service. |
