[10][11], Later in life, she studied in Fontainebleau, France, with Nadia Boulanger, at the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze in Geneva, and the Mannes College of Music, New York. Meanwhile, in her apartment at the Carlyle Hotel, people who called themselves Rebekah Harkness's friends were pillaging, ''grabbing things right and left.''. From the outside, Rebekah and William Harknesss marriage looked immaculate. Rebekah Harkness was practically destined to become a spoiled little rich girl. Her parents hired a nanny for Harkness specifically because she "had worked in an insane asylum," and then Harkness went to finishing school, where she decided to "do everything bad." A philanthropist. Rebekah Harkness was born on 17 April 1915 in St Louis, Missouri, USA. No clan is left untouched, and even families that seem happy and normal on. Harkness' passions for dance and music followed her into adulthood. But it is clear that as a spoiled young woman growing up in St. Louis between the wars,. Tag Archives: Rebekah Harkness. Rebekah Harkness. As it turned out, this was the beginning of her ignominious end. You won't want to miss this episode about the muse for Last Great American Dynasty by Taylor Swift. Bill adored the child, as he did his stepchildren, whom he treated as if they were his own. These are facts of which we have already been apprised. Her daughter Terry hired Roy Cohn in a (failed) attempt to have her will invalidated. [2][4] During her final days, Harkness began to reconcile with her children. She ended up selling the theater at a huge loss, and the Harkness Ballet company folded in 1975. 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. So in 1977 she checked into Silver Hill, a rehab clinic in New Canaan, Conn. Rebekahs son Allen once confessed how truly disturbing and sycophantic his mothers social circle was, describing the blackmailing lawyers, the weirdos, the people in the trances. Harkness also knew how to keep all of her adoring public in competition with each other, with each one of her lackies vying to become the favorite. Before her passing, she picked up her most dedicatedand most heartlessfan yet. Category 1960s Pop Art Black and White Photography. Rebekah had already had two children with her first husband, Allen and Anne Terry Pierce, and she then had one more child with William, a daughter named Edith. Is there a chic way to go? One day, Rebekah would find out that question for herself. In her obituary, shes credited with supporting the Joffrey and Jerome Robbins ballet companies. Before joining the team, she worked as a course lecturer while completing her Ph.D. in English Literature. With her help, the Joffrey won international renownsomething she wanted for herself. Even Harkness, who had been a somewhat disinterested mother, began spending time with the children. Rebekah West Harkness (April 17, 1915 - June 17, 1982) also known as Betty Harkness, was an American composer, socialite, sculptor, dance patron, and philanthropist who founded the Harkness Ballet. (Yes, the seaside mansion that was the setting for Taymerica.) AboutPressCopyrightContact. Their wedding took place at 730 Park Avenue, which was Williams apartment. See the article in its original context from. rebekah harkness children. Harkness only left death in her wake wherever she went. Before his death in August 1954, they had one child together; Edith Hale Harkness (19481982). Just after 1966, Harkness became a grandmother when her daughter Terry gave birth to a little girl. When Harkness offered to pay Ella Fitzgerald to sing some of her pop songs, Fitzgerald wouldnt do it. Its here where Rebekah catapulted into high society. She poured money into Harkness House, a dance studio meant to mimic the grandeur of European ballet schools, outfitting it with a marble staircase, silk shades, and a crystal chandelier. 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. He likes to talk about blowing people away. Everyone advised her to get her affairs in order, but as well soon see, things didnt work out so neatly for Rebekah Harkness in the end. Though her children Edith and Terry rushed to her bedside along with her lover Bobby Scevers, the scene was anything but heart-warming. She would also fill her lavish fish tanks with Scotch, even as living goldfish swam in them. When Joffrey refused to perform the schlock, Rebekahs revenge was brutal. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. The ashes were placed in a $250,000 jeweled urn made by Salvador Dali. One work, Dreams of Glory, had an insipid story about a little boy who dreams of becoming John F. Kennedy. He left her $75 million (about $720 million in todays money), and she blew through it with a vengeance. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. De . Today its pretty much forgotten, despite the tens of millions of dollars she spent on it. Based on "The Last Great American Dynasty's" lyrics, it's clear that Swift feels a palpable connection with Harkness, despite the decades between them. Immediate Needs: $1,500. [22] In 2020, Swift wrote the song "The Last Great American Dynasty" for her eighth studio album Folklore (2020), in which she tells Harkness' life story and draws parallels between Harkness highly publicized life and her own. The lovely pair only made it four years before divorcing. It was not part of the Harkness Ballet, Harkness House or the Rebekah Harkness Foundation. In 2020, Swift then penned the song the last great american dynasty, which tells Harknesss twisted story for the world. By signing up you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. Harkness started acting out early in her adolescence, and her antics would put any other mean girl to shame. William was rolling in money, which made him the perfect candidate for Rebekahs expensive tastes. In recent years, Harkness has gained new fameor infamybecause of her connection to Taylor Swift. Eolia was one of their seven homes and reputed . On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 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. 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. It was shaping up to be a white-picket fence brooduntil, that is, Rebekah proved herself to be an utterly horrific mother. While he was under her employ, she would often order him around romantically. If Harknesss lovers are anything to go by, she was a wildcat in the bedroom. Blue Blood is the incredible story of almost limitless fortunes squandered completely within one extravagant lifetime. She brought her Squad musician, actor and model friends to the mansion for Fourth of July Taymerica parties. They performed a strip tease at a social event and put mineral oil into the punch bowl at a coming-out party. The 16-track album, Swifts eighth, features a song titled The Last Great American Dynasty, about the late St. Louisbornsocialite Rebekah West Harkness, whom Swift paints as an eccentric. Swift gave all her friends matching red-white-and-blue onesies. In 1954, something curious happened to Rebekah Harkness: Her oil tycoon husband passed. Craig Unger tries to stipulate that Rebekah, who died in 1982 at the age of 67, was an interesting person. But she annoyed the neighbors, alienated her children and provided a tempting target for critics. Harkness had three husbands. Throughout the . Romance and heartbreak (and revenge) ballads make up the primary focus of most albums; however, her newest album, Folklore, which debuted today, features a song, titled "The Last Great American Dynasty," about a New England philanthropist and patron of the arts, Rebekah West Harkness. For all her money, Harkness did not have good taste. In the eyes of many, she had betrayed him. Might Mrs. Harkness be seen as a casualty of her own doomed and defiled expectations? Rocky Finds His Heart. 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. Dancer Lawrence Rhodes said it was one of the few times he was embarrassed to be in a ballet. Clark Gable, Douglas Fairbanks and Andrew Mellon owned homes there. It was shaping up to be a white-picket fence brooduntil, that is, Rebekah proved herself to be an utterly horrific mother. It would be interesting to see what a social historian, someone familiar with the hierarchies of caste and class in America - or, better yet, a novelist with a theological bent - would make of the raw material Mr. Unger has gathered. I want to look away, but I just cant. Reportedly, she wanted these updates so that she could see as little of her children as possible. She once dressed as a waitress at one of them so she could eavesdrop on the guests. When she was still just a young girl, the Harknesses noticed that their Betty was putting on weight, so they signed the pudgy girl up for dance and figure skating lessons to help her shed those unsightly pounds. [4], On October 1, 1947, Harkness married William Hale Harkness (19001954), the son of William Lamon Harkness, both Standard Oil heirs. It was Rebekah Harkness - whose second of four husbands, William H. Harkness, died in August 1954 in The Westerly Hospital after being stricken by a heart attack in the mansion - who patronized . Rebekah Harkness was a 1900s socialite and it is a crazy story that includes the entire Harkness family from her ancestors to her four husbands to her children. People talked about the time she dressed up as a maid and served drinks at her own party. She was brought up by a nanny who was chosen because she had worked in an insane asylum. [2], After graduating in 1932, she and a group of female friends formed the Bitch Pack, a sub-culture of local debutantes who enjoyed subverting society events, including lacing punchbowls with mineral oil and performing stripteases on banquet tables. 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. She lived on champagne and injections - Vitamin B, testosterone, painkillers - as a result of which her bathrooms were splattered with blood and her muscles calcified. Vogue may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. 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. Walker & Co. with George Herbert Walker, grandfather and great-grandfather of the Bush presidents. . 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