ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 6, 1997 TAG: 9702060030
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
TYPE: NEWS OBIT
SOURCE: Associated Press
ONCE KNOWN MORE FOR HER MEN than for her politics, Pamela Harriman raised eyebrows on both sides of the Atlantic when President Clinton appointed her ambassador to France. She took it all in stride and won the hearts of the French.
U.S. Ambassador to France Pamela Harriman testifies on Capitol Hill in this May 1995 file photo. Harriman, 76, died in Paris on Wednesday.
The long Fourth of July reception at the Paris embassy was over. For hours, the ambassador had stood in the receiving line, her smile never less than glittering. She danced, she mingled, she charmed. And as the crowd reluctantly left the compound on Rue du Faubourg St. Honore, she took the arm of a Marine guard for one final dance in the garden.
So typical of Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman.
Is it any wonder the French adored her? Or that they were not alone in their admiration?
Harriman died Wednesday at 76, less than 48 hours after suffering a stroke following a swim in the Ritz Hotel pool, where she regularly exercised.
``She was one of the most unusual and gifted people I ever met,'' said President Clinton, who sent her to Paris as the American ambassador.
There were plenty of doubters on both sides of the Atlantic when Clinton named Harriman ambassador to one of America's oldest and prickliest allies.
She quickly melted her hosts' skepticism by doing something they thought beyond the capacity of any American ambassador: She spoke impeccable French.
It took all Harriman's considerable charm to overcome her history.
She was, after all, a woman known not for her politics but for the men in her life. And what a life it was. Writer Truman Capote once called her a ``geisha girl'' to rich and powerful men.
There were the men she married: Randolph Churchill, Leland Hayward and Averell Harriman. And there were the countless rumors linking her to the rich and famous of her time: Italian industrialist Gianni Agnelli, French banker Elie de Rothschild, Frank Sinatra.
Connections, not diplomatic experience, made her ambassador to France. She was a genuine ``Friend of Bill'' and had a tireless record of moral, intellectual and financial support for the Democratic Party.
Her house on N Street, which she had shared with Averell Harriman, her third husband, became a Democratic Party salon, a gathering place for many of the party's best minds.
It was 1981, Ronald Reagan had just been elected president and the Republicans also had won control of the Senate. The conservatives were claiming with some supporting evidence that the Democrats were bereft of ideas, the party of the past.
``The Democratic Party was just gone, blown out of existence,'' Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia recalled. ``And suddenly there was Pamela, very calm, very strong, saying, `Come on, let's put this party back together again.' And she did.''
Ideas were discussed and money was raised in the house where the Van Gogh over the fireplace was an original, as were the Picasso, Matisse and Cezanne.
``I am a political animal,'' she said in an interview three months ago. ``I'm interested in my country's politics and in other countries' politics.''
Born March 20, 1920, in Farnborough, England, to Britain's 11th Lord Digby, she was a red-haired, round-faced English country girl with higher aspirations when she married Churchill during World War II. At 19, she was pressed into service as a hostess for his father, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who warned her of the difficult nature of luncheon guest Gen. Charles de Gaulle.
That first marriage was short-lived, ending shortly before the birth of her only child, Winston Spencer Churchill, now a member of Parliament.
After the war, she moved to Paris and spent the 1950s as a fixture in the city's art world.
Her second husband was Hayward, producer of the Broadway shows ``Sound of Music,'' ``South Pacific'' and ``Gypsy.''
They met in New York. Hayward's wife was in Europe and asked her husband to escort Pamela Digby Churchill to the theater. A messy divorce followed; in 1960, she became Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward.
Hayward died in 1971; a month later, his widow renewed her acquaintance with Harriman, the politician and diplomat who was heir to one of America's great railroad fortunes. They had first met during the war in London.
Within six months, they married and she became a U.S. citizen. Harriman was 51; her new husband was 79.
After his death, 15 years later, Harriman's children filed suit accusing her of squandering $30 million of the family fortune on bad investments.
The family settled out of court in 1995 by redistributing the assets. The exact terms were not disclosed; but that same year, Harriman put up for auction millions of dollars in art.
Harriman's tenure in Paris included a period when relations were strained over trade, culture, NATO restructuring, Bosnia, the Middle East and CIA spying inside France.
It turned out she was a skilled mediator on trade and other sticky issues. French officials expressed gratitude that she presented their views directly to Clinton, having access that most ambassadors could only dream about.
Having lived many years in Paris, she understood the country and its political mores. The ambassador's residence became the Paris equivalent of the house on N Street. Elegant dinner parties brought together an eclectic mix of politicians, diplomats, artists and intellectuals. The guest lists impressed people in a country that listens to its intellectuals.
French admiration for the U.S. ambassador was expressed last April when she was made a commander of the Order of Arts and Letters by French Culture Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, the first time an active foreign diplomat was so honored. Douste-Blazy praised her efforts to ``intensify French-American cultural links with passion, ardor and intelligence.''
During the interview last November, Harriman said she was ready to return to Washington. But she clearly had enjoyed her stay.
``There's always some drama somewhere,'' she said. ``But there have been gratifying successes.''
She will be buried at Arden Estate, her third husband's home north of New York City, according to the embassy. Her funeral will be in Washington after a memorial service in France.
LENGTH: Long : 115 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: U.S. Ambassador to France Pamela Harriman testifies onby CNBCapitol Hill in this May 1995 file photo. Hariman, 76, died in Paris
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