[2] Osborne wrote for the Memphis Commercial Appeal and the Associated Press before joining the National Recovery Administration, and then the Tennessee Valley Authority, as a U.S. government public relations officer during the Great Depression.
In 1940, William Saroyan lists him among "contributing editors" at Time in the play, Love's Old Sweet Song.
[citation needed] After returning to the United States, he lived in Georgetown and in Sag Harbor, Long Island, New York.
His widow, Gertrude (Trudi) McCullough Osborne, the daughter of an Indiana senator, was also a writer.
Known for his courtly manners, he had a slow drawl and a quiet demeanor, which belied his sharp political sense.