Former ambassador Pamela Harriman, in a will that she signed only one month before her death, left the bulk of her estate to be divided equally between her only son, Winston S. Churchill, and his estranged wife, Mary Churchill.
Pamela Harriman's son and daughter-in-law will be joined as executors of the will by former Virginia governor Gerald L. Baliles, an attorney whose firm drew up the will, and Linda J. Wachner, chairman of two clothing companies -- Warnaco and Authentic Fitness Corp. Wachner was a close friend and financial adviser.
Harriman designated national security adviser Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger, one of her speechwriters over the years, as her literary executor, saying that anyone who wished to write a biography of her should consult with him.
The will left the most valuable painting still in her possession -- the Vincent van Gogh painting "White Roses" -- to the National Gallery of Art. That is the only charitable gift in the will and it is said to be worth as much as $80 million. While she had numerous other artworks, none is worth more than about $1 million, according to experts. However, some said that because of her fame and the publicity surrounding her death, the minor pieces may bring a premium when they are auctioned.
Mary Churchill, known as Minnie, was a particular favorite of Pamela Harriman, who expressed her displeasure with her son's 1994 decision to leave his wife of 30 years. Harriman's will stipulated that even if Winston -- her only child by her first husband, Randolph Churchill, and the grandson of the famed British prime minister -- and Mary were divorced at the time of her death, Mary Churchill still would get half of the estate.
The person most notably left out of the will is Pamela Harriman's longtime assistant, Janet Howard, who had worked for her in Washington and Paris. Howard, who left Harriman's employ at the end of last year, did not return telephone calls requesting comment. "I think that's a conspicuous omission," said Sally Bedell Smith, a biographer of Harriman.
The other gifts in Harriman's will included $250,000 to each of her four grandchildren; $100,000 to her brother, Lord Edward Digby; $20,000 each to her two gardeners, Earl Loy and William Hoogeveen; $20,000 to Patti Stafford, her cook; $20,000 to Habib Ahmed, her chauffeur; and $10,000 to Clive Whittingham, her butler.
"If the gardener and the cook are named in the will and Janet Howard is not, that's a real surprise," said Christopher Ogden, who wrote a book about Harriman. Howard had been with Harriman since 1980. But Ogden and others said there had been a breach between the two last fall, when Harriman told Howard that there would be no job for her when Harriman returned to the United States as a private citizen. A very upset Howard then gave Harriman two weeks notice, according to Ogden.
Estate and tax lawyers said the will was unusual in several respects. The rich and famous often set up trusts for those to whom they bequeath their fortunes. That way, little is revealed in the publicly filed documents, and it helps to protect the estate from taxes.
If Harriman's assets are worth about $14 million, her heirs' federal tax bill will be about $5 million. In addition, Virginia, where the will is filed, will get about $1.5 million and the District about $300,000, according to estimates from tax experts.
The will also gives clues to the value of the confidential settlement with Averell Harriman's heirs, who claimed Pamela Harriman and her advisers had squandered as much as $41 million of the family fortune through bad investments and self-dealing. Averell Harriman's descendants are not mentioned directly in the will, but an obligation to pay a trust $2 million is. That trust is likely for the benefit of the heirs, as are proceeds of a life insurance policy of undetermined value, according to sources familiar with the will.
As part of a settlement reached with the Averell Harriman heirs a little more than a year ago, his two daughters and their offspring received an outright payment of about $9 million and additional assets worth about $7 million, according to sources and to a few legal documents that have become public. The assets include options to buy the Harriman cottage in Sun Valley, Idaho, as well as options on the Arden estate north of New York City, which consists of about 500 acres and includes the property where both Averell and Pamela Harriman are buried.
Just before the settlement, Pamela Harriman sold three important artworks -- a Picasso, a Renoir and a Matisse -- in New York for about $17 million. Her Georgetown home had been on the market for $3.5 million but was withdrawn when the property had no takers. The Middleburg residence probably is worth about $2 million, according to real estate experts.
After the settlement, Pamela Harriman attempted to recoup some of her losses by pursuing claims against Washington lawyers Clark M. Clifford and Paul C. Warnke. Clifford had been one of her principal legal and financial advisers and had recommended several disastrous investments to her.
In August, Harriman settled with the two lawyers, with Clifford paying a reported $1 million and Warnke paying less than $50,000, while some of their law partners contributed an additional $50,000. Staff writers Victoria Benning and Ann Gerhart and researcher Richard Drezen contributed to this story.
