Ève Denise Labouisse

About

Writer, journalist, pianist, humanitarian known primarily for the posthumous biography she wrote in honor of her mother: famous scientist Marie Curie. After she matriculated from Collège Sévigné, she spent some years traveling as a concert pianist and taking care of her ailing mother before she passed away in 1934. The next few years she spent dedicated to composing her mother's biography, which was published internationally in 1937. Two years later, WWII began, and she would be forced to flee France after it surrendered in 1940. She was active in her campaign to fight against the Nazi occupation, even losing control of her real estate holdings within France due to the success of her retaliatory efforts. She traveled through the war reporting on the efforts in Africa, Asia, the Soviet Union, as well as on the continent. Her reportage was published as the collection Journey Among Warriors. Later in life, she would dedicate herself to humanitarian work alongside her husband. She continued working with UNICEF even after her husband passed away, eventually promoted to the position Officier de la Légion d'Honneur for all of France. 

Before Fame

Born in Paris, France while her parents taught and researched at the Sobornne University. Raised primarily in France, her first language was French. However, both her and her sister were also familiar with their parents' culture and heritage, and thus they were both also fluent in Polish. Ève would later emigrate and gain American citizenship after the second World War. As a child and adult, she often traveled with family to and enjoyed the high society scene of New York City where she would become fluent in English, as well. She officially settled in New York City following the death of her husband in 1987 and maintained residency in Manhattan until the end of her life in 2007. She died peacefully in her sleep, in her own bed. 

Trivia

She is the only member of her family to not pursue a career as a scientist, having from a young age engaged primarily in the humanities and arts. She is also the only member of her family not to receive a Nobel Prize, as even her husband Henry was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 1965 on behalf of his prominent work with UNICEF. Due to her parents work with the particles that cause radiation, when she would travel to New York as a young girl she was referred to as the "girl with radium eyes."

Family Life

Her mother Marie Curie and father Pierre Curie were world-renown scientists that discovered the periodic elements uranium and polonium.  She was the youngest of two daughters born to the couple. Ève would marry Henry Richardson Labouisse Jr., a politician and diplomat. They did not have children together, but Henry's daughter from a previous marriage considered her as a mother. 

Associated With

She was very distinct from the rest of her family, as her sister Irène Joliot-Curie followed directly in their mother's footsteps. She both married a physicist, Frederic Joliot Curie and, furthermore, they were jointly awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work with induced radioactivity. They were the second ever married couple, following their parents as the first-ever couple, to be jointly awarded the Nobel Prize as husband and wife.