One of her administrators described how Harkness would come to the office in pink and blue leotards, literally stand on her head, and demand to have serious conversations while she performed her acrobatic work. William Hale died of a heart attack in 1954. De . If you hear oil and think Russian Oligarch rich, youd be pretty much right. Almost as soon as William Harkness kicked the bucket, Rebekah turned into one of the most tasteless, gaudy eccentrics the Western hemisphere had ever seen. Doctors told Harkness that she had one ailment that no amount of money could cure: She was dying of stomach cancer. She did this in grand - if occasionally Marie Antoinette-ish -style. She rang J. D. Salinger's bell dressed as a cleaning lady, having conceived the harebrained scheme that the reclusive writer's short stories be put to music. Family Members. From . Guests would find needles in her bathrooms, their walls spattered with blood. (You can see a video clip of Salvador Dali and Rebekah Harkness here.). Or, at least, a leg, half of . [9] Through the William Hale Harkness Foundation, she sponsored construction of a medical research building at the New York Hospital and supported a number of medical research projects. She started by bringing the company to Watch Hill (despite the neighbors) in the summer for instruction, practice and choreography. Like this story? See, Rebekah thought that notoriously reclusive writer J.D. Why? Let the little creature die!'' But most people dont know the most chilling part. The most tragic detail? She was the second daughter of three children to Allen Tarwater West, a stockbroker and co-founder of G. H. Walker & Co., and Rebekah Cook (ne Semple) West. Yet this came with great tragedy: The baby, named Angel, was severely brain-damaged. These are facts of which we have already been apprised. She maintains an online podcast that is available on iTunes or online at http://playerplaza.podbean.com . Its here where Rebekah catapulted into high society. Live better Money cant buy sense, and apparently Harknesss designer urn was far too small for her actual remains. The question Swift would have you ask is how much of this reputation was deserved and how much was the result of gossip or judgmental peers. Upon her death in 1982, Rebekah Harkness was called many things in her New York Times obituary. Not really. Taylor Swift and Rebekah Harkness may have been born decades apart, but it seems they shared a talent for dominating the headlines. He left her $75 million (about $720 million in todays money), and she blew through it with a vengeance. Watch the video for "The Last Great American Dynasty": Woytus is St. Louis Magazine's deputy editor, coveringnews and culture. Madame de Pompadour was the alluring chief mistress of King Louis XV, but few people know her dark historyor the chilling secret shared by her and Louis. Rebekah struggled with drugs and alcohol. One of Harknesss final acts in her role as ballet maestro was also her most embarrassing. AboutPressCopyrightContact. She filled her fish tank with goldfish and Scotch. Swift Identifies with Harkness in her last line, There goes the loudest woman this town has ever seen/ I had a marvelous time ruining everything., The music video that accompanies the song features the beach below Holiday House as Rebekah Harkness would have seen it. Shop for Rebekah Harkness at Walmart.com. Copyright 2022 SLM Media Group. Rebekah and Bill Harkness had one daughter, Edith. Rebekahs parents might not have cared a whit about loving their daughter, but they sure as heck cared about what she looked like. So did the ballet dancers practicing on her lawn. Harkness took up dancing and ice skating to lose weight and was highly disciplined in both endeavors. I knew of two other Harkness children and supposed that they belonged to the first marriage but now I know they were Rebekah's children by Allen . (''I'm glad Edith is gone,'' said the unquenchable Bobby Scevers. She used much of her inheritance to become a patron of the ballet, as well as to compose music. By 1980, many of Harknesss old friends had dropped off, and she was left with only her most sycophantic hangers-on. Our editors are instructed to fact check thoroughly, including finding at least three references for each fact. Upon the albums release, much of the Internet was thrown into a Who Is Rebekah West Harkness? madness. Generous, wasteful, willful, demanding and delusional, she broke with Joffrey to form the Harkness Ballet when he refused to perform the compositions she insisted on writing. They didn't fit: ''Just a leg is in there, or maybe half of her head, and an arm,'' said one of Rebekah's friends. (Getty) When Taylor Swift released her latest album Folklore, fans were left wondering about the subject of her song 'The Last Great American Dynasty' - Rebekah Harkness.. Was she a fictional character drawn from the depths of Taylor's imagination, or had she once been a living woman with a tale to tell? .more Get A Copy But Rebekah made the most of it. While he was under her employ, she would often order him around romantically. Her wealthy neighbors had other ideas, and scornfully forced her to remove the unsightly object. Bobby Scevers, Mr. Unger writes, ''had no sympathy'' for the child. They featured fireworks, boat rides and a giant inflatable water slide. Rebekah died that same year after a long bout with cancer. And the dysfunction didnt end there. Although William Harkness came from a well-respected family that was supposed to give Rebekah even more of the status she craved, William himself wasa total fool. From the outside, Rebekah and William Harknesss marriage looked immaculate. The rich socialite whose judgment sometimes lapsed was just too good a target. She once dressed as a waitress at one of them so she could eavesdrop on the guests. Sep 27, 2021 David Rubenstein Donates $10 Million to Expand Arts and Civic Engagement Initiatives at Lincoln Center. Yet like so much of Harknesss life, what seemed beautiful on the outside was rotting on the inside. Catherine of Aragon is now infamous as King Henry VIIIs rejected queenbut few people know her even darker history. Harkness started acting out early in her adolescence, and her antics would put any other mean girl to shame. Salinger, hoping to convince him his stories should be set to her music. Iyengar[4] and Salvador Dal, who would design her urn upon her death. The parties continued when she brought the entire Joffrey to Watch Hill in 1962 and 1963. Rebekah Harkness spent much of the Standard Oil fortune she inherited on the ballet. Rebekah divorced Pierce in 1946 after an excruciating seven-year marriage, and it wasnt long before she set her sights on William Hale Harkness, the heir to the Standard Oil fortune. Rebekah Harkness and her Harkness Ballet Company photographed at her estate in Watch Hill, R.I., 1964. As yet another troubled member of the family, Allen had gotten into a fight, slain a man, and was eventually sentenced with manslaughter. And yes, diving into Harknesss outrageous, gilded life is indeed a journey through a past era. By James Crowley On 7/24/20 at 12:22 PM EDT. She also bought them an old firehouse in Westerly to practice in, calling it the Harkness Center for the Arts. Her marriage to William Hale Bill Harkness, an attorney and heir to the Standard Oil fortune of William L. Hark The socialite was born in 1915 to a wealthy family in St. Louis, Missouri. Rebekah had always been well-off as a childas you might guess from the string of nannies who raised herbut marrying William Harkness thrust her into an entirely different tier of high society. . St. Louis, MO 63119 They called her ballets worthless, her music crap. The family looked immaculate from the outsidebehind closed doors, though, was another story. Her daughter Terry gave birth to a child who died at age 10. Silver Gelatin. Maybe. Rebekah Harkness Net Worth. Well, Harkness couldnt bear to be upstaged, so she unceremoniously fired Rhodes and doomed her own precious ballet company in the process. The book is available for purchase on Amazon for $195, but a May 1988 New York Times review by the late journalist Barbara Grizzuti Harrison clues us into the reported inner world of Harkness as published in the book. Allen Pierce, was convicted of murder after shooting a man in a brawl, her daughter Terry's child was born with brain damage and died at the age of ten and her other daughter Edith died of suicide, following numerous stays at mental health institutions. Throughout the . Jack Mitchell. Rebekah Harkness was born in 1915 to a rich, emotionally frigid St. Louis family. Wealthy, elegant, and beautiful, Harkness seemed to have it allfrom her oil baron husband to her notoriously raucous parties. An awning saved her life. Franklin Pierces three children died before reaching adulthood. Harkness had no problem dropping Joffrey like a hot potato when he wouldnt support her dismal vanity projects. The Harkness family had a reputation for its philanthropy. Rebekah Harkness, who also went by Betty, was the previous owner of Taylor Swift's Rhode Island home and serves as the inspiration for the third track on her latest album. Thomson Asks States to Sue the U.S.", "Out of Prison, Doctor Hopes to Regenerate His Lost Fame", "Taylor Swift is buying into a rich Watch Hill tradition", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rebekah_Harkness&oldid=1121521087, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using infobox person with multiple spouses, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 12 November 2022, at 18:59. First, a brief biography: Born Rebekah Semple West in St. Louis in 1915, Harkness was a divorce whose second marriage was to Standard Oil heir William Hale Harkness. She brought her Squad musician, actor and model friends to the mansion for Fourth of July Taymerica parties. Was she power or pawn? Ugh. It was shaping up to be a white-picket fence brooduntil, that is, Rebekah proved herself to be an utterly horrific mother. She retaliated by dying a neighbors cat green. Rebekah Harkness Photo: Jack Mitchell/Getty Images. [9] [14] Following the divorce, Harkness gained custody of both children. ''Oh, my God,'' said a witness. Harkness drew glares for her parties at Holiday House, as did Swift: Who could forget the frenzy over her celeb-studded Fourth of July bash? OthersJerome Robbins and George Balanchine flatly refused to choreograph her musical compositions. Might Mrs. Harkness be seen as a casualty of her own doomed and defiled expectations? [12] She began to cut back and look for public funding. Though Harkness didnt seem to care that he was using her, she probably should have. And about the times she cleaned her pool with Dom Perignon, dyed the neighbors cat green and filled her fish tank with scotch. When Harkness planned to put Angels nursery over top of his room, Scevers snapped, Let the little creature die! Unfortunately, he was one of the few people still by Harknesss side when the end came. Not long after Rebekahs passing, her daughter Edith finally managed to succeed in her attempts. Rebekah Harkness patronage allowed the Joffrey to perform in Iran. Her daughter Edith jumped off roofs, swallowed pills and managed not to kill herself. According to her biographer, Craig Unger, Rebekah Harkness led a life littered with high Gothic tragedy. She was a poor little rich girl, and by the end of her life, she wasnt that rich. So in 1977 she checked into Silver Hill, a rehab clinic in New Canaan, Conn. In addition to her marriage, Harkness also became well known for her personal eccentricities, as well as her contributions to the arts. Is there a chic way to go? One day, Rebekah would find out that question for herself. Her first major contributions were helping to fund the early . She lost card game bets with Salvador Dal. Aw, how sweet. ''You see,'' she said. Rebekah Harkness, the Scorned Socialite of Watch Hill, R.I. bought them an old firehouse in Westerly to practice in, discover and train many acclaimed dancers, regardless of their race, background or body shape, Dancer Lawrence Rhodes said it was one of the few times he was embarrassed, would train more professional dancers than any other company, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1653891, The Joffrey Ballet: Robert Joffrey and the Making of an American Dance Company. Themes of sexual repression, homoerotic love, tribalism and even the aftermath of rape were explored by some of the most famous choreographers of the time. Then she stole most of the Joffrey dancers for her own ballet company the Harkness. Obviously, Rebekah was completely out touch with realityso her next move makes sense. But it seems they shared a talent for dominating the headlines well, also. Woytus is St. Louis family as King Henry VIIIs rejected queenbut few people still by Harknesss side the. 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