Harriman Eulogized As A Woman Of Elegance

Before an assembly of almost 1,200 people, drawn from the worlds of politics, diplomacy, show business and high finance, President Clinton led a memorial service for Pamela Harriman Thursday morning, praising her as a woman of elegance and indomitable will.

Clinton recalled Harriman’s role in rallying the Democratic party in its dark days in the 1980s with her fund-raising and her organizational skills. “Today, I am here in no small measure because she was there” then, the president said.

Born into the British aristocracy, Harriman lived a vivid life that took her from wartime London as the wife of Sir Winston Churchill’s only son to Paris as the intimate friend of the rich and powerful of half a dozen nations before she came to the United States, where she married Leland Hayward, the theatrical producer, and then Averell Harriman, the politician and diplomat.