LVN star of the ’50s, Nita Javier, is now shining in a happier world. She died Good Friday, April 6, at 79, of cancer of the breast. With Nita at the last months of her life were her seven children and five grandchildren. Nita was diagnosed with breast cancer late last year and was immediately operated on. Unfortunately, the cancer has metastasized.
This columnist, Nita’s friend from way back, visited her wake at the Christ The King Church in Green Meadows, Quezon City. Her daughter Cecill said LVN contemporaries Delia Razon, Luz Valdez, Lilia Dizon, Rosa Rosal, Caridad Sanchez, Luisa Montesa, Myrna Quizon and Val Castelo, among others, condoled with the family.
Val was Nita’s leading man in Conde de Amor. Myrna, widow of Oscar Obligacion, was Nita’s neighbor at Valle Verde in Pasig.
Cecill said that her mother was very happy when she showed her the ad of Krisalis which appeared in this column a few Sundays back, ‘Pelikula ko ’yan.’
Nita’s other children are Jayjay, Bingbing, Bobby, Tina, Nando and Agnes.
Nita quit the movies in 1959 to marry Rafael Ng, an architect who died in 1998.
She was leading lady in Ay Pepita (Mario Montenegro), Banda Uno (Armando Goyena), Tuko sa Madre Cacao (Willie Sotelo), Limang Dalangin.
Nita co-starred with Nida Blanca and Nestor de Villa in Handang Matodas, Ikaw Kasi and Bahala Na.
In the late ’70s, Nita took up voice lessons under Maestra Mercedes Matias Santiago and held her solo recital in 1980 at the Philamlife Auditorium. It was at this stage in her life when I befriended Nita, sharing a common love for music.
Nita was a teacher in Cebu in the ’50s when a friend sent her photo to LVN matriarch Donya Sisang de Leon. The producer liked what she saw, a Filipina beauty, and told her to report to the studio in Manila. That started her acting career, cast in sweet roles. Her mother was a Cebuana and his father a Batangueño. — RKC