Why do we love Clare?

A true renaissance woman, Clare Boothe Luce had the rare skill to pursue five distinct careers in her life-and excelled in all of them. Born to a businessman and a dancer, she began her career as an actress, attending drama school after high school. She married at the age of 21, had a child, and then divorced because of her husband's abusiveness. After the divorce, Clare launched a career in journalism, working for Vogue and Vanity Fair magazines in the early 1930s. While covering New York society, Clare began writing plays. She met and married the young, dashing, successful founder and publisher of Time magazine (as well as Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated), Henry Luce. Clare's second play, The Women was a huge smash, going on to become a beloved 1939 film. Other successful plays followed throughout the '30s.

With the outbreak of World War II, Clare traveled to Europe as a correspondent for her husband's Life magazine. Her interviews with some of the leading figures in the war on all fronts and all sides led to her next career. In 1942, she ran for, and won, a Republican seat in the House of Representatives. Clare's outspoken isolationism and support for American troops earned her a high profile in Congress. She was elected to a second term. Clare tragically lost her daughter to a car accident in 1944. She was devastated and suffered a nervous breakdown before finding solace in Catholicism. After stepping down from Congress in 1946, Clare set her sights on Hollywood. She wrote several movies, and was nominated for an Academy Award in 1949.

Clare campaigned tirelessly for Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952, and was rewarded after his victory with an ambassadorship to Italy. Among her accomplishments in Italy, she helped settle a contentious dispute between Italy and Yugoslavia over the territorial lines of Trieste. She was forced to leave her post as ambassador in 1956 due to arsenic poisoning from the painted florets on the ceiling over her bed. President Eisenhower again appointed her to an ambassadorship in 1959, but she was forced to resign her post due to scandal (see below). She lived a fairly quiet life afterward, but did join the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board at the behest of Ronald Reagan. Few women lived life with as much passion, wit, and success as Clare Boothe Luce.

Biography:

Born - April 10, 1903
New York, New York
Died - October 9, 1987
Washington, DC

Achievements:

• 1936 - The Women opens on Broadway.
• 1942 - Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican for the Fourth District of Connecticut
• 1949 - Received an Academy Award nomination for the screenplay Come to the Stable, a drama about two nuns trying to raise money to build a children's hospital
• 1953 - appointed Ambassador to Italy by President Eisenhower, for whom she campaigned strongly
• 1959 - President Eisenhower appointed her ambassador to Brazil. After strong opposition and contentious debate, her appointment was confirmed, but an unflattering comment the ever-outspoken Clare made about a ranking senator caused great controversy and Clare resigned the ambassadorship a few days later
• 1981 - Appointed to President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board
• 1983 - Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom February 23