Portrait of Sharon Ellis Murphy
signed and dated 1946 (lower right)
oil on board
19” x 15” (48 cm x 38 cm)

PROVENANCE:Commissioned by Irene Murphy (Sharon Murphy’s mother), sister-inlawto Frank Murphy, American Governor-General of the PhilippineIslands (1933 - 1935)



WRITE UPIrene Ellis Murphy was born in Connersville, Indiana in the year 1900. She received her M.A. from the University of Michigan in 1928 and began a career as a social worker with the Detroit Department of Public Welfare and the Council of Social Agencies. She worked here until 1945. In 1929, she had married J. Harold Murphy, the brother of then Detroit Mayor Frank Murphy (1930 - 1933.) When Murphy left to become Governor General of the Philippine Islands (1933-1935), he took many members of his family with him. From her stay in the Philippines in the mid- 1930s, Irene Murphy would develop a life-long interest in the people and politics of the Islands. Frank Murphy would also become the first U.S. high commissioner (1935–36) in the Philippines, where he supported the independence movement. He would next become governor of Michigan from 1937 to 1939, and United States attorney general from 1939-40. While attorney general, Murphy established the first civil rights unit in the Justice Department. Murphy longed to be part of the war effort while on the bench. During Court recesses, he served as an infantry officer in Fort Benning, Georgia. Upon encouragement of Frank Murphy who headed the Philippine War Relief organization, Irene Murphy in 1945 accepted the position of field representative and assistant to the executive director. From 1946 to 1950, she worked with the Secretariat of the United Nations, and from 1951 to 1954, she was an advisor on Philippine cottage industries with the United States Foreign Operations Administration. Her work in this capacity led Irene Murphy to establish her own business back in Michigan in which she imported and merchandised Asian village products. Irene Murphy, then United Nations consultant on social welfare, brought the idea of the Community Chest united fund campaign to the Philippines. She headed the First TOP: Irene Ellis Murphy, head of Philippine Relief Operations in 1945. BOTTOM William Francis Murphy, last American Governor General of the Philippines. Community Chest Study Committee with Gil J. Puyat as vice chair, Severino N. Luna as secretary and Fanny D. Adarna as recording secretary. The members included Angelina G. Almanzor, Domingo Bascara, V.A. Benitez, Aurea del Carmen, John Ferrier, Osmundo Fernandez, Gurmensio Garcia, Manuel Lim, Josefa Jara Martinez, Bishop C. Navarro, G.R. Padolina, Eugenio Padua, Asuncion A. Perez, Robert Trent, Ma. Luisa A. Vicente, George J. Willmann, SJ, and J.H. Yanzon. At Community Chest’s 10th Anniversary Celebration on 4 December 1959, a Presidential Award was conferred by President Carlos P. Garcia on Ms Murphy, “through whose vision and effort the Community Chest idea was born, and Community Chest of Greater Manila was established in 1949 in Manila. Irene Murphy served her alma mater, the University of Michigan, with election to the Board of Regents, serving from 1957 to 1966. Irene Murphy died July 25, 1989. Sharon Murphy, whose portrait is the work at hand dated 1946, accompanied her mother on her trip to the Philippines.