Textual inscriptions form a frame around the central design, and include a quotation from Kennedy's 1961 inaugural address "... And the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

The required "U.S. POSTAGE" inscription is positioned inconspicuously in small letters vertically next to the Eternal Flame, while the denomination is in the frame text.

This was a challenging deadline, requiring the stamp to be designed, approved by the President's widow, Jacqueline Kennedy, and printed in large quantities in just a few months (it was estimated that two million first day covers would need to be available).

William Manchester, in his book The Death of a President (published by Michael Joseph in 1967) on page 246 gives another version of how the stamp was produced: Immediately after the first announcements of the assassination, many people "...took refuge in habit.

Two designers at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, feeling utterly lost, neatly laid out their tools and doodled away at a John F Kennedy commemorative stamp.