Ninfa Ramos Leonardia, editor-in chief and president of the Visayan Daily Star in Bacolod City, passed away 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 23.
Leonardia, 89, succumbed to a heart attack at the Riverside Medical Center in Bacolod, her brother Evelio, former Bacolod mayor and League of Cities of the Philippines national president, said.
She co-founded the Visayan Daily Star in 1982 and was the longest serving editor-in-chief of the Bacolod-based newspaper.
“Our family grieves the loss of our pillar of strength and clan matriarch. But we are definitely sure that with her life-long commitment and dedication to journalism, where she had displayed her unique talents and established an unquestioned integrity during all these decades, she will also be missed and honored in the Fourth Estate,” her brother said.
“Among the high points of her career included having been elected the first woman provincial press club president in the country, and founder of the oldest daily newspaper in our island, The Visayan Daily Star,” he added.
“As we will dearly miss her, we salute her with our love, respect, and deepest admiration. Our family thanks everyone who had been a part of her life and her work, and who had made her the woman of substance she has become,” he said.
Leonardia was president of the Negros Press Club from 1965 to 1966 and 1979 to 1980.
She was named an Outstanding Negrense by the Negros Occidental provincial government, and received the Outstanding Journalist of the Philippines Award from the Rotary Club of Manila in 2003.
She was among the first batch of awardees of the Mother Rita Barcelo Award from La Consolacion College as Distinguished Alumni, Women Helping Women Awardee of the Soroptimist International-Bacolod (1984), and an Outstanding Journalist awardee of the Negros Press Club.
Her wake will be at the Acropolis Gardens in Barangay Bata, Bacolod City until Saturday. She will be buried at the Bacolod Memorial Park after a funeral mass at the Sacred Heart Shrine (Lupit Church) 2 p.m. on Sunday.
She is survived by her brothers, Evelio and Prospero Leonardia. ||
