Her father was a Scot, William Ranken Fortune, and her mother was a native of San Francisco, Helen Hersberg.

[2][3] In 1905, she returned to San Francisco, where she studied at the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art, then directed by Arthur Frank Mathews.

The 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed the Fortune family's home, virtually all of Effie's paintings, and the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art.

She was elected women's vice president of the Art Student's League and contributed some illustrations to Harpers Magazine.

Upon visiting her alma mater in Edinburgh, she was commissioned to paint three panels of the life of Christ for St. Margaret's Convent.

[2] In 1910, after a trip to Paris where she was exposed to modern French art, Fortune re-emerged in San Francisco.

In 1914 William Merritt Chase taught a summer painting class in nearby Carmel; Fortune took credit for having invited him, although the collected documentary evidence shows that the artist Jennie V. Cannon and co-founder of Carmel Frank Devendorf were responsible for inviting Chase.

She exhibited in various European and American museums and galleries during these years, and in 1924 one of her paintings of Saint Ives Harbor received a silver medal at the Paris Salon.

In 1955, she received the papal award Pro ecclesia et Pontiface for outstanding achievement in the field of liturgical art.

The play featured Teresa Del Piero in the title role and John Brady as the Bishop.

[8] The play is set after the artist has turned to liturgical work and as she looks back at her life while giving a lecture.