    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book I)]
    [February 13, 1997]
    [Pages 149-150]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the Funeral of Ambassador Pamela Harriman
    February 13, 1997

        We gather in tribute to Pamela Harriman, patriot and public servant,
    American Ambassador and citizen of the world, mother, grandmother,
    great-grandmother, and sister, and for so many of us here, a cherished
    friend. She adopted our country with extraordinary devotion. Today her
    country bids her farewell with profound gratitude.
        Hillary and I have often talked about what made Pamela so
    remarkable. It was more than her elegance, as unforgettable as that was.
    It was more than the lilt of her voice and her laughter, more even, than
    the luminous presence that could light up a room, a convention hall, or
    even the City of Lights itself. It was more than her vibrant sense of
    history and the wisdom that came to her from the great events she had
    lived and those she had helped to shape, from the Battle of Britain to
    the peace accord in Bosnia. I think it was most of all that she was
    truly indomitable.
         One day the train she was on to London was bombed twice, during the
    Blitz. She simply brushed off the shards of glass, picked herself up,
    and went to the office to do her work at the Ministry of Supply. She was
    21 years old.
        More than 40 years later, all of us who knew her saw the same
    resolve and strength again and again, most tenderly, in the way she gave
    not only love but dignity and pride to Averell who, as long as he was
    with her, was at the summit, even to his last days.
        In 1991, she put her indomitability to a new test in American
    politics, forming an organization with a name that made the pundits
    chuckle because it did seem a laughable oxymoron in those days:
    Democrats for the Eighties. For members of our party at that low ebb,
    she became organizer, inspirer, sustainer, a captain of our cause in a
    long march back to victory. She lifted our spirits and our vision.
        I will never forget how she was there for Hillary and for me in
    1992: wise counsel, friend, a leader in our ranks who never doubted the
    outcome, or if she did, covered it so well with her well-known bravado
    that no one could have suspected. Today I am here in no small measure
    because she was there.
        She was one of the easiest choices I made for any appointment when I
    became President. As she left to become our Ambassador to France, she
    told us all with a smile, ``Now my home in Paris will be your home.
    Please come and visit, but not all at once.'' [Laughter] It seemed she
    had been having us at her home all at once for too many years. So a lot
    of us took her up on her invitation to come to Paris. After Hillary and
    I had been there the

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    first time, I must say I wondered which one of us got the better job.
    [Laughter]
        In many ways her whole life was a preparation for these last 4 years
    of singular service and achievement. She represented America with
    wisdom, grace, and dignity, earning the confidence of France's leaders,
    the respect of its people, the devotion of her staff.
        Born a European, an American by choice, as she liked to say, Pamela
    worked hard to build the very strongest ties between our two countries
    and continents. She understood that to make yourself heard you had to
    know how to listen. And with the special appreciation of one not native
    born, she felt to her bones America's special leadership role in the
    world.
        Today, we see her legacy in the growing promise of a Europe
    undivided, secure, and free, a legacy that moved President Chirac last
    week to confer upon Pamela the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor,
    France's highest award. He said then that seldom since Benjamin Franklin
    and Thomas Jefferson had America been so well served in France.
        There is one image of Pamela Harriman I will always treasure. I can
    see her now, standing on the windswept beaches of Normandy on the 50th
    anniversary of D-Day. She had told many of us of the long, tense night
    in England half a century before, as they waited for news about the
    transports plowing toward the shore, filled with young soldiers,
    American, British, and Free French. Now, 50 years later, history had
    come full circle, and she was there as an active life force in the
    greatest continuing alliance for freedom the world has ever known.
        I was so glad that Randolph read a few moments ago from the book of
    Sir Winston Churchill's essays that Pamela loved so well and gave to so
    many of us who were her friends. The passage he read not only describes
    her own life, it is her valediction to us, her final instruction about
    how we should live our lives. And I think she would like this service to
    be not only grand, as it is, but to be a final instruction from her to
    us about what we should now do.
        Let me quote just a portion of what was said a few moments ago.
    ``Let us reconcile ourselves to the mysterious rhythm of our destinies
    such as they must be in this time--in this world of time and space. Let
    us treasure our joys but not bewail our sorrows. The glory of light
    cannot exist without the shadows. Life is a whole, and the journey has
    been well worth making.''
        Throughout her glorious journey, Pamela Harriman lightened the
    shadows of our lives. Now she is gone. In the mysterious rhythm of her
    destiny, she left us at the pinnacle of her public service, with the
    promise of her beloved America burning brighter because of how she lived
    in her space and time. What a journey it was and well worth making.
        May God comfort her family and countless friends, and may He keep
    her soul indomitable forever.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:26 a.m. at Washington National
    Cathedral. In his remarks, he referred to Pamela Harriman's late
    husband, W. Averell Harriman; her grandson, Randolph Churchill; and
    President Jacques Chirac of France.