United States Representative, U.S. Ambassador, Author. A playwright, editor, and society figure, she had a notable political career and was long a "grand dame" of the Republican Party. The illegitimate daughter of a violinist and a lady of dubious reputation, she was imbued early by her father with a love of good literature and music. Raised under unstable circumstances with a variety of last names in Chicago, Memphis, New York City, and elsewhere, she understudied Mary Pickford on Broadway at age 10 with her mother's encouragement. After graduating from high school in 1919, she had her first taste of politics during a trip to Europe with her mother and stepfather, where she became interested in the Women Suffrage movement. In 1923, she married the wealthy and somewhat older George Tuttle Brokaw, who became an abusive alcoholic, according to sources. The couple had a daughter named Ann in 1924, and she took her maiden name following her 1929 divorce. She joined the staff of "Vogue" magazine in 1930 and became its managing editor in 1933, along the way publishing a number of satirical society sketches that were collected in 1933 as "Stuffed Shirts." In 1935, she married wealthy publisher Henry Luce, and that same year, her first play, the drama "Abide With Me," was produced on Broadway. The work was essentially a flop, though she had better success, at least with the paying public, with the 1936's comedy "The Women." Her "Kiss the Boys Goodbye" in 1938 and the 1939 "Margin of Error" were both comedies with political overtones that scored as major hits. In 1940, she began working as a war correspondent for her husband's "Life" magazine in both Europe and Asia. In 1942 she became a candidate as a Republican for the United States House of Representatives for Connecticut and was elected. In Washington, she lost no time before slamming President Franklin Roosevelt's Democratic administration, yet she sided with the Democrats a number of times, taking more liberal positions, such as increasing Indian and Filipino immigration quotas. She was a major supporter of American troops during World War II, touring twice near the front lines. She suffered a tragedy in 1944 when her daughter was killed in a motor vehicle accident and in the aftermath, under the spiritual direction of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, she underwent a strong and permanent conversion to the Roman Catholic Church. Indeed, so open was her faith that years later when she was assailing Communism in Italy, Pope Pius XII had to remind her that he, too, was Catholic. In 1957, she was awarded the Laetare Medal from Notre Dame University, which is considered the most prestigious award for American Catholics. Declining to run for reelection in 1946, she returned to writing, authoring articles on Catholicism, seeing her 1949 screenplay "Come to the Stable" nominated for an Oscar and having her play "Child of the Morning" staged in 1951. A major supporter of Dwight Eisenhower in the 1952 Presidential campaign, she was rewarded with an appointment as the Ambassador to Italy. In Rome she continued to warn against the Communist menace in Europe while helping to mediate a border dispute with Yugoslavia. She became the focus of a medical mystery when she developed a severe and unexplained gastrointestinal illness; the continued worsening of her condition resulted in evacuation from Italy to Washington's Walter Reed Army Medical Center where no firm diagnosis was found, yet where her illness resolved without treatment. Becoming symptomatic again upon her return to Rome, she was finally diagnosed with arsenic poisoning. An investigation revealed no evidence of a deliberate attempt on her life and showed that no one else in the Embassy became ill. The "culprit" was finally found when it was discovered that her private office had been painted with Paris Green, an attractive though dangerous arsenic-based pigment paint once popular in the homes of the rich but illegal in the United States for more than 100 years. Since the paint was too expensive for general use, it was only used in the Ambassadorial office, thus she was the only one ill. She eventually recuperated, remaining at her post until 1956. In 1959, she was named Ambassador to Brazil, and though confirmed despite strident opposition from Oregon's Senator Wayne Morse, she resigned a few days later over criticism of her remarks questioning Morse's mental competence in which she speculated that he "must have been kicked in the head by a horse." She and her husband retired to Phoenix where they supported Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater as a candidate for United States President in 1964. Following her husband's sudden death in 1967, she moved to Hawaii and resumed playwriting, though her 1970 play, "Slam the Door Softly," was unsuccessful. In 1979, she became the first female recipient of West Point's Sylvanus Thayer Award, then in 1981 she returned to Washington where she was named to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. As the first female member of Congress to be a recipient, she was presented the Medal of Freedom by President Reagan in 1983. She relocated to Washington D. C. She died of a brain tumor. The Clare Boothe Luce Award, the Heritage Foundation's highest honor, was created in her memory in 1991. She has many notable quotes, such as "I refuse to accept the compliment that I think like a man, thought has no sex, one either thinks or one does not."