Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 31, 1993 TAG: 9305310092
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
She's spent a lifetime as Mrs. Somebody Famous - the woman behind Winston Churchill's son, then a Hollywood producer, then one of the Democrats' great statesmen. Now a widow and 73, she's launching a career of her own. As ambassador to France.
How does a British-born grande dame esteemed for her charm and social savvy become the boss of a U.S. embassy with a staff of 1,000? She took a common route: raising lots of money for the president-to-be.
But there is nothing common about multimillionaire Pamela Harriman, or the way she appeared - POOF! - a fairy godmother for the Democrats in the 1980s, their lonely decade of need.
The party had lost its Senate majority and a popular Ronald Reagan was in the White House.
"The Democratic Party was just gone, blown out of existence in 1981, and everyone was looking around saying `What in heaven's name has happened?' " remembers Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.
"And suddenly there was Pamela, very calm, very strong, saying, `Come on, let's put this party back together again,' " Rockefeller said. "And she did."
She turned her Georgetown drawing room into a political salon, enticing the Democrats' top intellects, big contributors, leaders and candidates to dinner. They would mull over arms control or the economy or election strategy and raise money.
Harriman founded her own political-action committee that, on the strength of these "issues evenings," raised $12 million over 10 years. One of her PAC's first board members was Bill Clinton.
Her success caught some Washington insiders by surprise.
"People thought, `This is a rich beautiful society lady who grew up in another country, why should we pay any serious attention to her?' " said former Kennedy aide Ted Sorensen, a longtime friend.
But a lifetime in the orbit of power had prepared Harriman to become the Democrats' champion.
She was a red-haired, round-faced English country girl when she married Randolph Churchill during World War II. At age 19 she was pressed into service as a hostess for his father, the prime minister.
Her brief marriage ended in divorce after the birth of her only child, Winston, and she moved to Paris, where she spent the 1950s soaking up salon life among luminaries such as writer Jean Cocteau, culture minister Andre Malraux and designer Christian Dior.
During the '60s, she moved in Hollywood and Broadway circles as the wife of producer Leland Hayward.
But her deep dedication to the Democrats was cultivated by her last husband, W. Averell Harriman, a former ambassador, governor of New York and adviser to Democratic presidents for five decades. They were married in 1971.
"She's always devoted herself to whatever her husband was interested in," said historian Arthur Schlesinger, another longtime friend. "With Harriman, it was politics and diplomacy."
Their weekends were spent relaxing at their estate in Middleburg, Va., where Harriman joined the fox hunt and took a quiet interest in town government. Even casual acquaintances noticed her ability to make people feel she was fascinated by their every word.
She started out as a hostess to the prominent Democrats who came to call on the party's grand old man at their Georgetown home, but as Averell Harriman's health weakened, she began a gradual transformation from political wife to political power.
When he died in 1986 at age 94, some Washingtonians expected Harriman to abandon politics and disappear among her horses in Middleburg. She didn't.
"She was a real soldier," said Melissa Moss, former finance director for the Democratic National Committee. "Her home became a gathering place for the Democrats in exile."
With the Democrats finally back in power, the daughter of Britain's 11th Lord Digby became true Washington royalty.
Her dinner party was one of the new president's first stops in Washington. No one was surprised that Clinton handed her the French embassy plum.
Although the opposition often complains when ambassadorships are passed out to political bankrollers, when Harriman appeared before a Senate panel for her confirmation hearing even Republican Sen. Jesse Helms was cordial, passing along greetings to her son, Winston Spencer Churchill, who followed his father's footsteps into Parliament.
Her return has been ballyhooed by the French press - Le Figaro newspaper called her "the most powerful kingmaker of the Democratic Party" and "a legend on both sides of the Atlantic."
Harriman makes it clear that her embassy duties extend beyond the merely social. She told Helms that "the substance of the job is enormously important" and she plans to deal directly with French leaders, "voice to voice."
Keywords:
PROFLE
by CNB