Mar. 23—The United States Postal Service will issue a Forever Stamp this spring honoring the legacy of beloved children's book author, illustrator and longtime New London resident Tomie dePaola.

He was best known for writing the Strega Nona series and "26 Fairmount Avenue." He died in 2020 at the age of 85.

A first-day-of-issue celebration and dedication ceremony is set for May 5 at the Currier Museum in Manchester at 11 a.m. Steve Monteith, chief customer and marketing officer and executive vice president, U.S. Postal Service, will serve as dedicating official.

Alan Chong, director and chief executive officer at the Currier; former New Hampshire first lady Dr. Susan Lynch; and Jon Anderson, president, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers and publisher of "Strega Nona," are expected to attend.

The stamp art features a detail from the cover of "Strega Nona" (1975), a Caldecott Honor Book and the first in a popular series. The title character, "Grandma Witch" in Italian, uses magic to cure her neighbors' ills and to help with matters of the heart. The stamp image shows her carrying her magic pasta pot.

Derry Noyes, an art director for USPS, designed the stamp with dePaola's original art.

Tomie dePaola was born in Meriden, Connecticut. He earned an MFA from the California College of Arts & Crafts in Oakland, California, and a BFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, according to his biography on Random Penguin House.

Throughout a 30-year career, the famous children's book author published nearly 200 books in 15 different countries.

He won multiple awards, including the University of Southern Mississippi Medallion, the Smithsonian Medal, the Caldecott Honor Award for "Strega Nona," and the Kerlan Award from the University of Minnesota for his "singular attainment in children's literature." The Catholic Library Association awarded him the Regina Medal for his "continued distinguished contribution."

He was included as one of the "top 125 Pratt icons of all time" in 2012 by the Pratt Institute.

Among his awards is the biennial Laura Ingalls Wilder Award he received in 2011 from the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association. He also was the United States nominee in 1990 for the international Hans Christian Andersen Award, among the most prestigious global recognitions for creators of children's books. He won the 1983 Golden Kite Award from the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators for "Giorgio's Village; the 1994 Aesop Prize from the American Folklore Society for "Christopher, the Holy Giant" and the 2000 Southwest Book Award from the Border Regional Library Association for "Night of Las Posadas."

He was a past runner-up for the 1976 Caldecott Medal, the 1982 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for "The Friendly Beasts: An Old English Christmas Carol," the 1987 Golden Kite Award for "What the Mailman Brought" and the 2000 Newbery Medal for "26 Fairmount Avenue."

His career led him to Colby-Sawyer College in New London in 1959, when his friend, Eugene Youngken, the Sawyer Center's first theater director, invited him to create the sets and perform in the venue's first production, Thornton Wilder's "The Matchmaker."

He would return as a faculty member from 1972 to 1975. He taught classes in theater production, costume and set design, and art and film history, and he ran the children's theater company during the summers.

During his years at what was then Colby Junior College, he also illustrated children's books. This was the inspiration for "Strega Nona," a grandma witch who cooks magical potions in her pasta pot to cure headaches, remove warts and conjure romance in her Italian village. The book earned him a Caldecott Honor in 1976 and became his first best-selling children's work.

During a 2013 interview with the New Hampshire Union Leader he had the following advice for young artists.

"You have to know where you start from and not worry about where you end up," he said. "You need drive, you need to stick-to-it and work hard. You need to find an opportunity and recognize the opportunities. You need to look yourself in the mirror and tell yourself, 'This is what I want to do'."

Most of all, dePaola told the Union Leader, young artists need to believe in their work. "Follow your bliss," he said.