M1393: President Sergio Osmeña Postcard

Postcard Size: 4"x5.5"
Postcard Type: View card
Printed by: JMC Press, Inc., Quezon City
Purchased at Goodwill Bookstore

The postcard shows the portrait of President Sergio Osmeña, probably his official portrait hung on the walls of the Reception Hall in Malacanang. Most of the official portraits were painted by Fernando Amorsolo, Garcia Llamas and other noted artists.

Sergio Osmeña y Suico was born in Cebu on September 9, 1878, from a rich and prominent clan of Chinese-Mestizo heritage. He studied in San Juan de Letran College and took up law at the University of Santo Tomas, placing second in the bar examination in 1903.

While he was Governor of Cebu (1904-1907), he ran for election to the first Philippine Assembly of 1907 and was elected Speaker. He was elected an assemblyman in 1907, and remained a member of the lower house until 1922. In 1922 he was elected to the senate. He was the country's Vice-President from November 15, 1935 until August 1, 1944, becoming president of the Commonwealth on Quezon's death in 1944.

The back of the postcard reads:
President Sergio Osmeña, Sr., 1878-1961.
Speaker of the first Philippine assembly, 1907-1916.
Last Philippine Commonwealth President, 1944-1946

M1393: President Sergio Osmeña Postcard

He died of both liver failure and breast cancer at the age of 83 on October 19, 1961 at the Veteran's Memorial Hospital in Quezon City. He is buried at the Manila North Cemetery.

He married married Estefania Chiong Veloso on April 10, 1901, with whom he had eight children, namely, Vicente, Edilberto, Nicasio, Milagros, Emilio, Teodoro, José, and Sergio, Jr. In 1920, two years after the death of his first wife, he married Esperanza Limjap, and had three more children, namely, Ramón, Rosalina, and Victor.

SOURCE:
Sergio Osmeña Wikipedia Entry