Legendary Journalist Gwen Ifill To Be Honored With A Forever Stamp

The late journalist Gwen Ifill  will be memorialized with a Forever stamp next year, the U.S. Postal Service announced  on Tuesday. 

The stamp will feature a 2008 photo of Ifill with her name at the bottom and the words “Black Heritage” at the top, as part of the Postal Service’s Black Heritage series.

“Among the first African Americans to hold prominent positions in both broadcast and print journalism, Ifill was a trailblazer in the profession,” the Postal Service said in a release.

Ifill died of cancer in 2016 at the age of 61. For 17 years, she had served as the moderator of PBS’s “Washington Week” the first Black woman to host a nationally televised political talk show. In 2013, she also joined “PBS NewsHour,” becoming half of the first all-female anchor team to lead a network nightly newscast. Ifill moderated the 2004 and 2008 vice presidential debates as well.

Before moving to PBS in 1999, Ifill worked at The Washington Post, The New York Times and NBC News. She was often one of the few Black women, if not the only one, in a newsroom.

“Gwen was one of America’s leading lights in journalism and a fundamental reason public media is considered a trusted window on the world by audiences across the nation,” PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger said at the time of Ifill’s death.

Boston’s Simmons College, from which Ifill graduated in 1977, announced on the first anniversary of her death  that it was naming its College of Media, Arts, and Humanities  after the renowned journalist.

“The kind of unimpeded curiosity Gwen brought to her work, coupled with her warmth, integrity and commitment to truth-telling, is something all of our students aspire to no matter what field of study they pursue. We are extraordinarily proud of her and so pleased to formalize her legacy at Simmons this way,” college President Helen Drinan said in a statement at the time.