One of the all-time greats of women’s tennis was remember April 23 with a new “Forever” (55¢) commemorative for extraordinary tennis champion Maureen Connolly Brinker (1934–69). In her heyday during the early 1950s, she was better known by her nickname “Little Mo,” so called because “the 5-foot-4-inch dynamo used powerful groundstrokes to become the first woman to win all four major tennis tournaments in a calendar year.”
Shown nearby, the stamp art features an oil-on-linen painting of the tennis star by Gregory Manchess based on an unattributed black-and-white photograph taken in 1952 of Connolly hitting a low volley. Nicknamed “Little Mo,” the 5-foot-4-inch dynamo used powerful groundstrokes to become the first woman to win all four major tennis tournaments in a calendar year. Art director Derry Noyes designed the stamp.
At age 16 in 1951, Connolly won the U.S. Championships, the youngest ever to win America’s most prestigious tennis tournament, and capped it by winning the first of her three straight Wimbledon championships the following year. “In 1953, she became the first woman to capture the single-season Grand Slam of tennis, winning the Australian Championships, the French Championships, 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 ever have achieved that feat,” a USPS announcement said.
Connolly won the last nine Grand Slam singles tournaments in which she played, including 50 consecutive singles matches and all seven of her 1951-54 singles matches. She was acclaimed Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year from 1951 to 1953.
Two weeks after she won her third-straight Wimbledon title, a compound fracture to her right calf in a freak riding accident ended her playing career. After that, “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,” the USPS statement noted.
The “Little Mo” commemorative is the fourth U.S. stamp for women’s tennis in the past 29 years. It was preceded 1n 1990 by an 25¢ Olympians stamp for Hazel Wightman (Scott 2498), who dominated women’s tennis prior to World War I, winning 45 U.S. titles during her life and winning gold in women’s tennis and mixed double in the 1924 Paris Olympic games.
In 1994, a 32¢ stamp in a set of five Recreational Sports stamps featured a woman preparing a two-handed return volley (Scott 2964), and in 2013, a 46¢ Black Heritage “Forever” stamp (Scott 4802) paid tribute to professional golfer and tennis champion Althea Gibson was the first black to cross the color line of international tennis, although the 56 national and international singles and doubles titles she won in her amateur career brought her little prosperity.
Coincidentally, “Little Mo” gets her stamp the same year as a June 11 issue honors the “Big Mo” from which her nicknamed was derived — the Iowa-class battleship USS Missouri (BB-63), the last such ship commissioned by the United States 75 years ago.
Customers have 120 days to obtain the first-day-of-issue postmark by mail. They may purchase new stamps at their local post office or at usps.com/shop. They must affix the stamps to envelopes of their choice, address the envelopes to themselves or others, and place them in a larger envelope with the required postage addressed to:
FDOI — “Little Mo” Stamp
USPS Stamp Fulfillment Services
8300 NE Underground Drive, Suite 300
Kansas City, MO 64144-9900
After applying the first-day-of-issue postmark, the Postal Service will return the envelopes through the mail. There is no charge for up to 50 first day covers, but there a 5¢ charge for each additional postmark over 50. All orders must be postmarked by August 23, 2019.