She was the only daughter of chemicals heiress and philanthropist Peggy Zinsser (d. 1992) and politician Lewis W. Douglas (d. 1974) who served as Arizona congressman, FDR's budget director, and U. S. ambassador to the Court of St. James from 1947 until 1950.

At various times in her life, "Charmin' Sharman," as she was known during her father's tenure as ambassador, worked as a talent agent, a movie publicist, and a public-relations agent.

Linked romantically to the Marquess of Blandford and the Marquess of Milford Haven in the 1950s, she also reportedly had a two-year relationship with England's Princess Margaret, according to "Margaret: The Secret Princess," an ITV program broadcast in Britain in February 2003.

Sharman Douglas married Andrew MacKenzie Hay, a food importer, in 1968. They divorced in 1977.

Her first cousin Josalee Douglas was the first wife of Count Jean-Francis de Chambrun, who later married Raine, Countess Spencer, the stepmother of Diana, Princess of Wales.

DOUGLAS, Lewis Williams, a Representative from Arizona; born in Bisbee, Cochise County, Ariz., July 2, 1894; attended the public schools and Montclair (N.J.) Academy; was graduated from Amherst (Mass.) College in 1916; attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1916; commissioned as a second lieutenant on August 15, 1917, and assigned to the Three Hundred and Forty-seventh Regiment, Field Artillery; promoted to first lieutenant and served overseas as assistant, G-3 staff, Ninety-first Division, until discharged on February 18, 1919; instructor of history at Amherst College in 1920; engaged in mining and general business; member of the Arizona State house of representatives 1923-1925; elected as a Democrat to the Seventieth Congress; reelected to the three succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1927, until his resignation March 4, 1933, before the commencement of the Seventy-third Congress; appointed Director of the Budget by President Franklin D. Roosevelt; took the oath of office on March 7, 1933, and served until August 31, 1934, when he resigned; vice president and member of the board of a chemical company 1934-1938; principal and vice chancellor of McGill University, Montreal, Canada, from January 1938 to December 1939; president of an insurance company from 1940-1947, and chairman of the board on leave of absence, 1947-1959; deputy administrator of the War Shipping Administration from May 1942 to March 1944; United States Ambassador to Great Britain 1947-1950; director, General Motors Corporation, 1944-1965; chairman and director, Southern Arizona Bank & Trust Company, 1949-1966; appointed by the President to head Government Study of Foreign Economic Problems, 1953; member, President’s Task Force on American Indians, 1966-1967; died in Tucson, Ariz., March 7, 1974; cremated.