THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 6, 1997 TAG: 9702060398
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: PARIS LENGTH: 62 lines
Her charm and savvy dazzled men of power and gave a magic touch to soirees on both sides of the Atlantic. A wealthy socialite with keen political instincts, she became a respected diplomat.
U.S. Ambassador Pamela Harriman died Wednesday, two days after suffering a stroke. She was 76.
Leaders remembered her as an important behind-the-scenes player in U.S. politics and in diplomacy.
``She loved France, and she was such a great lady that she knew spontaneously how to improve relations, to solve the problems,'' said French President Jacques Chirac.
Chirac said he would posthumously award Harriman his nation's highest award, a Legion of Honor medal, on Saturday.
Donald Bandler, the deputy chief of mission, announced Harriman's death at American Hospital outside Paris as embassy staffers stood by in tears. Bandler is the interim charge d'affaires at the embassy, where the American flag flew at half-staff.
President Clinton, whose 1992 election was due in no small part to Harriman's fund raising and political acumen, called her ``one of the most unusual and gifted people I ever met.''
``She was a source of judgment and inspiration to me,'' he said.
Harriman was a member of the College of William and Mary's Board of Visitors from 1986 to 1990. She also helped establish the college's Pamela C. Harriman Professorship of Government and Public Policy and a campus child-care center. Last summer, she hosted the William and Mary Choir at the U.S. Embassy in Paris.
``The nation has lost a dedicated servant, and the College of William and Mary has lost one of its most devoted friends,'' William and Mary President Timothy J. Sullivan said in a statement.
``Ambassador Harriman was not only a distinguished diplomat; she was a member of the William and Mary family,'' Sullivan said. ``She was equally comfortable in advising world leaders in foreign capitals or receiving advice from students here on campus; in charting the course of international relations or planning the future of the college child-care center.''
Ambassador to Paris since May 1993, Harriman was the lightning rod for often testy relations with Paris over trade, culture, NATO restructuring, Bosnia, the Middle East and CIA spying in France.
With charm and a brilliant smile, Harriman succeeded easily in a Paris political court fully aware she had Clinton's ear.
Her job, as she saw it, was to ``maneuver small things that help in the large picture.''
``You can change outcomes without appearing to have surfaced,'' she once said.
Born March 20, 1920, in Farn-borough, England, to Britain's 11th Lord Digby, she was married to Winston Churchill's son Randolph, ``Sound of Music'' producer Leland Hayward and, finally, former New York governor and ambassador Averell Harriman. MEMO: This story was compiled from reports by The Associated Press and
staff writer Phil Walzer. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Pamela Harriman
KEYWORDS: DEATH OBITUARY