Clair Booth Luce (1903-1987)

American playwright, legislator, and diplomat, born in New York City, and educated at private schools. From 1930 to 1934 she held editorial positions on such magazines as Vogue and Vanity Fair. In 1935 she married her second husband, the publisher Henry R. Luce. She wrote three successful plays, The Women (1936), Kiss the Boys Goodbye (1938), and Margin for Error (1939), all noted for their acid wit and all later filmed. She was a war correspondent during the early part of World War II. Following her conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1946, she wrote many articles on religious subjects for national publications. A Republican, Luce represented Connecticut in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1943 to 1947. In 1953 President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed her ambassador to Italy; the first American woman ambassador to a major country, she held the post until 1957. Her biography, written by Wilfrid Sheed, was published in 1982.
(From Distinguished Women Past and present)