Cowboy Stamp Illustrator Grew Up with Roy Rodgers and Gene Autry

The Los Angeles Daily News reports stamp designer Robert Rodriguez "had the hobby horse, the cowboy hat and six-shooters. He even had the cowboy bicycle, with the horse head, fringe and stirrups."

Staff writer Dana Bartholomew pens,"And each day after school, as the TV test pattern shifted to the Wild West, Robert Rodriguez would mount up with Gene Autry or Roy Rogers and gallop across the dusty range."

In the piece, Rodriguez, now 62, is quoted as saying, "Cowboys were my life. They wore the white hats. They taught kids good from bad, right from wrong. They were our heroes."

For Rodriguez, who has illustrated a dozen other stamps, the cowboy series was a special project according to Dana.

Rodriguez, along with Gene Autry's wife, Jackie, Roy Rodger's daughter and grandson, took part in a first day of sale ceremony at The Autry National Center and Museum of the American West over the weekend.

Jeffrey Richardson, assistant curator of film and popular culture at The Autry, also spoke at the ceremony. He pointed out that Autry, and his sidekick Smiley Burnette, played postal inspectors in the 1951 film Whirlwind and carried the mail for Uncle Sam.

Shown above, first day of sale cover autographed by ceremony participants.

To read the entire article and see the other stamps, click here.