THE US ambassador to France, Mrs Pamela Harriman, a British born aristocrat turned diplomat and a personal friend of President Clinton, died yesterday two days after suffering a stroke, the US embassy said. She was 76.
Mrs Harriman, the former daughter in law of Winston Churchill, died in the American Hospital in Paris, where she had been taken after the cerebral haemorrhage on Monday evening.
Mrs Harriman had been reported in "serious" condition since being taken ill at the Ritz Hotel in Paris, where she had gone for her usual weekday swim in the hotel pool. It was unclear whether she had ever come out of a coma.
Mr Clinton paid tribute to her at the White House minutes after her death was announced.
"Our country will miss her," Mr Clinton told journalists, describing her as "a source of inspiration to me".
President Jacques Chirac praised Mrs Harriman as a "great US ambassador and a great lady".
Mr Chirac telephoned the British MP, Mr Winston Churchill, Mrs Harriman's son, who was close by when she died, to offer his condolences, a spokeswoman said.
Always faultlessly turned out, Mrs Harriman, well known for her stab role amid the world's rich and famous, was expected to quit the Paris post this summer.
Mrs Harriman played a major role in propelling Mr Clinton into the White House and was named ambassador to France by him in May 1993. She had been expected to leave the Paris post this summer.
US embassy charge d'affaires Mr Donald K. Bandler, her deputy at the US mission in Paris just off the Place de la Concorde, took over from her ad interim.
He said: "Ambassador Harriman believed that America must have strong allies in Europe and around the globe. She worked tirelessly during the last four years to strengthen the bonds between the United States and France."
Born in Farnborough, England, on March 20th, 1920, the then Pamela Digby married Randolph Churchill, son of Britain's war time prime minister Winston Churchill, in 1939. They had one child, Winston Spencer Churchill.
She was married twice more afterwards - first to the film mogul, Leyland Hayward, in 1960, and to the veteran US politician and diplomat, W. Averell Harriman, in 1971.
She emigrated to the US in 1959, be coming a citizen in 1971.
She was active for many years in Democratic party activities, serving as national co chair of Clinton's successful first presidential campaign in 1992.