Alexandria, Va. – Pamela Gardner Ahearn, who served nine years as chief of protocol in the U.S. House of Representatives after earlier experience with the State Department’s Office of Protocol and as Elizabeth Taylor’s executive assistant, died March 26 of a heart attack at her home in Alexandria, Va. She was 52.
Fascinated by etiquette and politics since her youth in Tennessee, Ahearn combined both interests to become an only-in-Washington authority on the diplomatic niceties required at official dinners and other state occasions.
After holding high-level protocol positions in the Reagan administration and with the U.S. Information Agency, Ahearn was named chief of protocol by House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., in 1995. She was the first and, so far, the only person to hold the job.
Democratic members lampooned the appointment, with Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts calling Ahearn’s $62,000 salary “a total waste of money.”
“Has there been a lot of misbehaving, that we have now hired our own in- house Miss Manners?” asked then-Rep. Patricia Schroeder, D-Colo. “How can members keep a straight face and say that taxpayers should tighten belts so that the House can get advice on how to curtsy? … What is the appropriate toast after giving the wealthy a $240 billion tax cut?”
Over time, Ahearn won respect on both sides of the aisle as she arranged dinners, ceremonies, international trips and Capitol visits by international leaders.
“She was always happy to help anyone on the Hill, regardless of party,” said her husband, Frederick “Rick” Ahearn. “She viewed it as a bipartisan role. It was ironic that, after being mocked on the floor by Patricia Schroeder, she was later called on by Schroeder’s office on matters of protocol.”
Before her job at the House, Ahearn was assistant chief of protocol for ceremonials with the State Department’s Office of Protocol. She organized state lunches and social gatherings of legislators, diplomats and heads of state.
She had to be aware of cultural traditions, food taboos and rules of hierarchy and rank.
“It takes a lot of sensitivity to other cultures and great attention to detail,” said Selwa “Lucky” Roosevelt, who was chief of protocol in the Reagan administration and Ahearn’s boss at the State Department. “You can’t ever let a flap happen. (Former Secretary of State) George Shultz said if protocol goes well, people don’t notice. But if something goes wrong, you’re on the front page of every newspaper.”
Ahearn was born Oct. 7, 1954, in Nashville, Tenn., and graduated with honors from the University of Alabama. In 1977, while working on the campaign of Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate John Dalton, she met her future husband, whom she married in 1990.
Ahearn then joined the senatorial campaign of John Warner, R-Va., and moved to Washington after Warner was elected in 1978.
Two years later, she became executive assistant to Warner’s wife at the time, actress Elizabeth Taylor. She was Taylor’s liaison with agents, producers, lawyers and the media.
She also transported Taylor’s jewels. Wearing nondescript clothing, Ahearn would follow the screen star on a later flight, carrying millions of dollars in gems, then step off the plane into a waiting car with flashing lights.
