Fortune Estimated at $50-$100 Million : Wife to Get Most of Harriman’s Wealth

Former New York Gov. W. Averell Harriman left the bulk of his wealth to his widow, Pamela Digby Harriman, a will filed in a northern Virginia county showed today. Harriman is the mother of Winston Spencer Churchill II.

Averell Harriman, heir to one of the nation’s largest family fortunes, did not disclose the value of his estate in the will. The 50-page document, written Sept. 12, 1984, and updated Aug. 7, 1985, was filed in Loudoun County Circuit Court on Aug. 8.

He owned a 60-acre estate, known as Willow Oaks, in Loudoun County horse and fox hunt country. He bequeathed to his wife all of his real estate, including homes in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., Sun Valley, Ida., and Washington’s Georgetown section.

Harriman’s first husband was Randolph Churchill, son of the former prime minister. After their divorce she was married to Leland Hayward, actor’s agent. She and Harriman were married in 1971 after his second wife died. She is 66.

Averell Harriman directed the formation of a $6-million trust, which after 25 years would be liquidated and distributed among his grandchildren. The trustees are his wife, who will receive the interest for the remainder of her lifetime, and prominent former White House confidant Clark Clifford and arms control negotiator Paul Warnke.

Each of Harriman’s six grandchildren is to receive $100,000. He noted that substantial provisions were not made for his “beloved daughters”--Kathleen Lanier Harriman Mortimer and Mary Averell Harriman Fisk--”because I know them to be otherwise well provided for.”

Harriman died July 26 at 94. The elder statesman, who served Democratic Presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Jimmy Carter, was the son of a multimillionaire railroad magnate, and his personal fortune was estimated at between $50 million and $100 million.