AIDES FEEL WILLS OF MIGHTY : SOME RICH BOSSES LEAVE BIG BEQUESTS, OTHERS JUST LEAVE.

Byline: David J. Morrow The New York Times

There is nothing like a will in probate to give billionaire watchers something to gab about. And one morsel in Harry B. Helmsley's estate should keep them buzzing for a while.

The New York real-estate mogul, who by most accounts was golden-hearted compared with his wife, Leona, had been expected to leave a bequest for Ceil Fried, his longtime secretary. She juggled his dictation, menial tasks and one of the world's busiest social schedules for decades. He left her $25,000, not much of a gratuity from a $1.7 billion estate.

At least Fried got something.

Pamela Harriman, the international socialite and ambassador to France who died in February, cut Janet Howard, her personal assistant for 16 years, out of her will. And Harriman twisted the knife, not only making bequests of $20,000 apiece to two gardeners, a cook and a chauffeur, but also leaving half her estate to a daughter-in-law estranged from Harriman's son.

But personal attendants to some other luminaries - Bette Davis, the tantrum-throwing Hollywood siren; William S. Paley, the charismatic founder of CBS; President Johnson and heiress Doris Duke - report fond memories of catering to the whims and coping with the mood swings of their former masters.

First Secretary

It was a road that many more or less stumbled onto. Marie Fehmer had just finished her senior year at the University of Texas in 1962 when a friend called and asked her to try out for a secretarial position in the nation's capital.

For an hour, she was interviewed by a government official, who asked about her dictation and typing skills. Then he asked her to follow him up a flight of stairs for one more interview. She passed several plainclothes officers whom she later learned were Secret Service men. Sitting in a room at the top of the stairs was Johnson, then the vice president.

``He wanted to know if I minded working with a black person, and I told him no. And then he wanted to know if I was a Democrat. I told him that I was an Independent. He said that was OK, just as long as I wasn't a Republican.''

She got the job. Although there were three other secretaries to share the pain by the time Johnson became president in 1963, he ran them all ragged. Rising at 6 a.m. he would immediately hit the telephones to rouse congressmen and Cabinet officials - and, often, his secretaries.

She said she ``heard about his temper,'' but he never resorted to coarse vulgarities in her presence.

Bette Davis Surprise

Maybe Johnson, who died in 1973, watched his language around young women, but it is unlikely that Bette Davis did. ``I was a legendary terror,'' the actress, who died in 1989, once recalled.

That was not the personality that Kathryn Sermak dealt with for the final 10 years of the film star's life. Sermak also came into her favorite job almost by chance.

She was temporarily working as a secretary for the sister of the exiled shah of Iran in 1979 when the agency that had placed her asked if she would go to a job interview by Davis.

``I wasn't intimidated, but she did want to know things I didn't expect. She asked me when I was born and my sign. And then she asked me if I knew how to cook a three-minute egg. I told her I didn't know what that was.''

Honesty went a long way with Davis, who hired Sermak on the spot. Far from acting like some sort of mad queen, the film star turned out to be a warm and fun-loving companion with a penchant for playing practical jokes on house guests, Sermak said.

After Davis died in Paris, Sermak was surprised to get half her former employer's estate, whose total value is estimated at $600,000 to $1 million.

Duke Thanks Her Cook

The grande dame of tryouts was Duke, who tested and shucked more than 300 chefs in her last 30 years.

The final one was Colin Shanley, who came to Duke's estate in Newport, R.I., to cook on Labor Day weekend in 1988. The only instructions he got were to cook anything Duke said she liked and try to enjoy himself. For his troubles, he would pocket $800, roughly one week's salary.

``We sat down at the kitchen table, and she went over everything she had eaten over the past three weeks,'' said Shanley, who is now 37. ``I served her baby vegetables one day, and she told me she didn't like them because they were an affectation.''

He must have done something right because he lasted four years and received a $10,000 bequest.

`Priceless' Experience

For all their pains, the aides of the wealthy and powerful rarely get rich. Their salaries today are generally in the $40,000 to $60,000 range.

White House staffs fared a bit better. Fehmer received a salary of $17,000 in 1964, equivalent to $87,000 in today's dollars, and President Johnson handed out gifts to his secretaries each Christmas. Most of the male aides, many of whom had law degrees, earned $36,000, equivalent to $185,000 today.

``Of course, no one was working for the money,'' said Fehmer, who also received a $3,000 bequest in President Johnson's will. ``An experience like that was priceless.''

CAPTION(S):

Chart

Chart: The Ultimate In Severance Pay 

Most estate lawyers advise wealthy clients to bestow posthumous gifts on their employees. But not all of them do. Here is how some who served the rich have fared over the years. Figures are not adjusted for inflation.

The New York Times