Florence Jaffray Harriman
| Florence Jaffray Harriman | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| United States Ambassador to Norway | |
|
In office 1937–1940 |
|
| President | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Preceded by | Anthony J. Drexel Biddle, Jr. |
| Succeeded by | Anthony J. Drexel Biddle, Jr. |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Florence Jaffray Hurst July 21, 1870 New York City, New York |
| Died | August 31, 1967 (aged 97) Georgetown, D.C. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | J. Borden Harriman (m. 1889; his death 1914) |
| Profession | Suffragist and social reformer |
Florence Jaffray "Daisy" Harriman (July 21, 1870 – August 31, 1967) was an American socialite, suffragist, social reformer, organizer, and diplomat. “She led one of the suffrage parades down Fifth Avenue, worked on campaigns on child labor and safe milk and, as minister to Norway in World War II, organized evacuation efforts while hiding in a forest from the Nazi invasion.” In her ninety-second year, U.S. President John F. Kennedy honored her by awarding her the first “Citation of Merit for Distinguished Service.” She often found herself in the middle of historic events. As she stated, “I think nobody can deny that I have always had through sheer luck a box seat at the America of my times.”
Harriman was born Florence Jaffray Hurst on July 21, 1870 in New York City to shipping magnate F.W.J. Hurst and his wife Caroline. When she was three years old, her mother, then 29, died. She and her two sisters (Caroline Elise and Ethel) were raised in and around New York City by her father and maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Somerville Jaffray. At age six, she watched her first political torchlight parade, part of the 1876 presidential campaign. "She later told of leaning over the bannister of her home at 615 Fifth Avenue, to hear visitors such as John Hay, President James A. Garfield, and President Chester A. Arthur."
She was known throughout her life as “Daisy.”
Between 1880 and 1888, she received private lessons at the home of financier J. P. Morgan. She also attended the Misses Lockwood's Collegiate School for Girls.
In 1889, at age nineteen, she married J. Borden Harriman, a New York banker (and an elder cousin of future cabinet secretary, New York Governor and diplomat W. Averell Harriman). The list of attendees at their wedding included past and future president Grover Cleveland, railroad tycoons Cornelius Vanderbilt and Edward Harriman, John Jacob Astor IV, and J. P. Morgan. They had one child, Ethel M.B. Harriman, born on December 11, 1897. Ethel worked on Broadway and in Hollywood, as an actress and writer (as Ethel Russell or Ethel Borden).
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