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Library-Clare McGill Luce

		Clare McGill Luce, "Western Room" Named For Library’s Benefactor The new Western Room at the library will be named for Claire McGill Luce. Librarian Jolyn Wynn, who considers Claire to be the mother of the library, announced the honor for Mother¹s Day. “I think of her in that way because she had a real commitment to establishing a collection dedicated to the history of Harney County. She bequeathed a large sum to create an on-going fund for the library,” Wynn said. Claire McGill was born in Andrews, Oct. 19, 1923. Claire’s parents, Frederick and Catherine McGill, divorced when she was young. She lived with her mother in Idaho and Omaha, according to a biography written at the time of her death. At 12 Claire returned to Harney County and lived with her grandfather, Alexander Rogers, who ranched at Harney. She later moved into Burns, working for and living with various families so she could attend Burns Union High School. Mary Salsbery of Burns was in 7th grade when Claire lived with her family, the Skiens, when Claire was a junior “On weekends we would go out to her grandfather’s at Harney. There was an old general store that had been closed up with everything in it, and we would stare through the windows and look for ways to get in.
We tried everything short of breaking in,” Salsbery said. Claire acted in several high school plays, remembered Dick Clark of Burns, who was in the class ahead of her. “We sang the leads in two operettas,” Clark said. In the Burns Times Herald, March 31, 1939 edition, an article said Claire played Mitzi in a show called Tune In. The March 29, 1940 edition said she played Marcia Norton in a musical comedy called Hollywood Bound. In real life, Claire was New York bound.  “Mildred Corbett ran the Rainbow Girls and was instrumental in getting Claire back East through a family friend,” said Salsbery. Salsbery added that William Angell of Portland selected Claire to represent Burns at a Rainbow Girls conference in Portland and then arranged for her to live with a teacher in New York so she could finish high school there. Salsbery remembered she wanted to be a dress designer. Claire ended up traveling and working throughout the world, not in the world of fashion, but in a career that included finance, publishing and foreign diplomacy. She also raised three sons: Kenneth O¹Sullivan, and William and James Hurt. Claire became the library’s benefactor in 1970. She died a year later, June 22, 1971, and is buried in Harney Cemetery. Her husband, Henry Luce III of New York, continues to pay for maintenance of the cemetery. Grants are being sought to construct the library addition. Donations in honor of the “mother of the library,” for the Claire McGill Luce Western History Room may be made to Harney County Library Foundation, 80 W. D Street, Burns, OR 97720. Home l Departments l County History l Elected Officials l Jobs & Contract