Harriman, Pamela (1920-1997), was a British-born member of fashionable society. She later moved to the United States, where she became a major supporter of the Democratic Party. She served as U.S. ambassador to France from 1993 until her death.
Harriman was born Pamela Beryl Digby in Farnborough, Kent, England, on March 20, 1920. She spent her infancy in Australia and her childhood in the English county of Dorset. In the 1930’s, she was educated at Downham School, Hertfordshire, and in Paris.
Pamela Digby was officially introduced into fashionable English society in 1938. In 1939, with Europe on the threshold of World War II (1939-1945), she met and married Randolph Churchill, only son of the future wartime leader of the United Kingdom, Winston Churchill. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1946.
During the war, Pamela Churchill, as she was then known, became involved with W. Averell Harriman, an envoy of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s government. The affair ended when Harriman moved to Moscow in 1943 to serve as U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union.
After her divorce, Pamela Churchill lived in Paris and then New York City. In 1960, she married Leland Hayward, an American theatrical producer. Following Hayward’s death in 1971, she again met Averell Harriman, by now a widower, and the couple married. In December 1971, Pamela Harriman became a U.S. citizen.
Pamela Harriman embraced her husband’s support of the U.S. Democratic Party. She hosted social occasions and successful fund-raising events. The Harriman home in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C. served as an unofficial rallying point for Democratic Party members, especially during the 1980’s. Averell Harriman died in 1986, leaving his wife a wealthy widow and a leading force among Democrats. In 1992, she gave her support to Bill Clinton’s presidential bid, and in 1993 Clinton appointed her U.S. ambassador to France. In this post, she helped bring about a diplomatic reconciliation over trade between France and the United States and thus removed a crucial block to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), signed in 1994.
Pamela Harriman died on Feb. 5, 1997.
