[5][4] Louise McClure was born in 1916 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, to a family of English descent.

[1] As a result of the Great Depression the McClure family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area for work.

[6] She attended the University of California, Berkeley, where she received a bachelor's degree in art in 1939.

[9][1][10] In 1951, Bezalel and Louise emigrated to Israel, settling 5 years later in the artist village of Ein Hod.

Her sister Evelyn "Eve" Burton McClure, was the ex-wife of film director Jack Carr; actor Lyle Talbot; novelist Henry Miller; and sculptor Harry Dick Ross.