.more Get A Copy She started by bringing the company to Watch Hill (despite the neighbors) in the summer for instruction, practice and choreography. William Hale Harkness [13], A philanthropist, Harkness supported the Joffrey Ballet for years, as well as the Harkness Ballet Foundation and the William Hale Harkness Foundation. 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. To zero peoples surprise, the Harkness family was utterly dysfunctional. We want our readers to trust us. Rebekah's younger daughter Edith, a failed suicide who had spent many years in mental institutions, took only her mother's pills: Seconal, Nembutal, Valium, Haldol, Librium and various painkillers - 40 vials in all. Catherine of Aragon is now infamous as King Henry VIIIs rejected queenbut few people know her even darker history. '', After her divorce from W. Dickson Pierce, an upper-class advertising photographer, she chose for her second husband the Standard Oil heir William Hale Harkness, who enjoyed a lofty social status, as her own family did not. Her grandfather founded the St. Louis Union Trust Company, ensuring she grew up comfortably. An awning saved her life. The couple divorced in 1946. Being a patron of the ballet was Rebekahs passion. $19.95. 314-918-3000. It had hand-carved Louis XIV chairs and a huge mural that featured the companys dancers as well as Rebekah Harkness in the nude. But behind her perfect faade lies a chilling history. She supported the arts in general, ballet in particular, and she had the wealth with which to do it. Then a little-known ballet company, they spent the summers practicing and experimenting with new ideas. In addition to her marriage, Harkness also became well known for her personal eccentricities, as well as her contributions to the arts. In addition to her dancing career, Harkness also fancied herself something of a composer, and would often perform her original songs to polite reception at famed places like Carnegie Hall in New York. When she erected a giant blue geodesic dome on her lawn, they sued her for zoning violations. [23], An American Ballet Story is an upcoming documentary film directed by Leslie Strait and sponsored by the International Documentary Association. A patron of dance and medicine. ''So absurd,'' Mr. Scevers pronounced. She and her friends called themselves the Bitch Pack and disrupted debutante parties. Born April 17, 1915 Died June 17, 1982 (67) Showcase yourself on IMDbPro Add to list Credits Taylor Swift By Cosmopolitan UK, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=90905376. (Mr. Scevers has a stunning way of placing himself squarely in the center of every sentence he utters; he appears to believe that Rebekah Harkness's death happened more to him than to her.) I myself wouldn't give the time of day to anyone who cleaned her pool out with Dom Perignon, put mineral oil in the punch at her sister's debutante ball and (all in the middle of the Great Depression) got tossed off an ocean liner for shouting obscenities, throwing dinner plates at an orchestra of Filipinos gamely playing the American national anthem, and offending the sensibilities of her fellow passengers by swimming nude - for which actions she counted herself witty. How should she do it? She wondered. Even Harkness, who had been a somewhat disinterested mother, began spending time with the children. The critics, especially the New York Times Clive Barnes, savaged Rebekah. After her husband passed away in 1954, Harkness poured more money into her Watch Hill compound, installing 8 kitchens and 21 baths. If a dancer needed dental work or a nose job, she paid for it. Ad Choices, Phil Ohs Best Street Style Photos From the Fall 2023 Shows in Paris, 5 Key Signs That Indicate Youre Going Through Menopause, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Have Been Asked to Leave Their U.K. Home. Rocky Finds His Heart. In October 1948, Harkness gave birth to her first child with her second husband, a daughter Edith. We are meant to take comfort and a measure of relief from our difference - though, as we know but do not frequently wish to remember, the grave awaits us all. He appears to have been an embarrassing sort of man; he wrote and privately published a book called ''Totem and Topees,'' which he described as a ''conglomeration of uninteresting misinformation,'' and followed that with a book called ''Ho hum, the Fisherman,'' which, he said, did not ''have the excuse even of literary merit.'' . The rich socialite whose judgment sometimes lapsed was just too good a target. Edith often used her mothers many, many pills to perform these attemptsand Rebekah was anything but empathetic. There's something about the family structure that encourages secrets. (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? Instead, she was reared by a series of nanniesand thats not even the worst part. (Watch it here.). Half sister of Private; Private and Anne T. McBride. Rebekah Harkness Photo: Jack Mitchell/Getty Images. A week after her death on June 17, 1982, the mortal remains of Rebekah Harkness were toted home by her older daughter Terry in a Gristede's shopping bag. Rebekah and Bill Harkness had one daughter, Edith. She hoped that the fourth time would be the charm, but the socialite had no such luck. . She would also fill her lavish fish tanks with Scotch, even as living goldfish swam in them. Harkness was surprisingly generous when it suited her, but also unpredictably bizarre. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Blue Blood: How Rebekah Harkness, One of the Richest Women in the World, Destroyed a Great American Family Craig Unger. [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. [24] It explores the Harkness' legacy and her company, Harkness Ballet.[25]. Want to share other feedback? Before joining the team, she worked as a course lecturer while completing her Ph.D. in English Literature. 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. She filled her fish tank with goldfish and Scotch. At the same time, she studied music composition and dance. Taylor Swift tells the story of "The Last Great American Dynasty" in her Folklore track about one of the wealthiest women in America, Rebekah West Harkness. Send Woytus anemail at awoytus@stlmag.com. But most people dont know the most chilling part. Bobby Scevers, Mr. Unger writes, ''had no sympathy'' for the child. In its day, the Harkness would train more professional dancers than any other company. 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. For example, he liked to vanity-publish nonsensical books that even he admitted were awful. But Rebekah made the most of it. In 1974, Harkness married again, this time to another doctor named Niels H. Lauersen. Rebekah Harkness was born in 1915 to a rich, emotionally frigid St. Louis family. Mr. Unger, who records interviews uncritically and unreflectively, does not permit us to know exactly how he feels about his subject. As well see, Rebekahs love only devolved from there. Franklin Pierces three children died before reaching adulthood. According to Scevers, It was complete chaoseverybody running around signing wills and trying on different wigs. And when Rebekah actually passed on June 17, 1982, things only got weirder from there. Rebekah Harkness had ambition and drive. She had a newfound freedom to do whatever she wanted with the piles of money in her bank account. 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 . They dubbed themselves the [W]itch Pack and, after graduating in 1932, set about trying to wreak havoc on the socialite scene, one gala at a time. Harkness pulled this prank at her own sisters debutante ball. From the outside, Rebekah and William Harknesss marriage looked immaculate. Before his death in August 1954, they had one child together; Edith Hale Harkness (19481982). In 1961, Harkness decided she wanted to become the next great ballet master, so she sponsored actual master Robert Joffreys artisanal ballet troupe. (You can see a video clip of Salvador Dali and Rebekah Harkness here.). She believed in reincarnation. One of Harknesss signature moves was to use vastly expensive products for everyday, mundane things. She blew through her fortune on the boys and the ballet. (Harkness was an avid patron of the arts and founded her own company, Harkness Ballet. My association with Rebekah Harkness was based on creating a business venture that would make a profit. One day, Harknesss antics were so extreme that they got her kicked off a cruise ship. Once she pretended to be a cleaning woman and approached the reclusive J.D. [16], In 1961, Harkness married Ben Kean (c.19121993),[17] a physician who was a professor of Tropical Medicine at the Cornell Medical College. [4], On June 10, 1939, Harkness married Dickson W. Pierce, the son of Thomas M. [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. Rebekah Harkness' antics annoyed her neighbors, while Jesus' antics got him murdered by the state and by some religious leaders. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. For what its worth, Allen called the years he spent in the clinkerand away from his motherthe happiest of his life.. She was born April 17, 1915 to a wealthy St. Louis stockbroker Allen Tarwater West and his trophy wife Rebekah. Rebekah Harkness. She also bought them an old firehouse in Westerly to practice in, calling it the Harkness Center for the Arts. In December 1956, she even appeared in the pages of Vogue. Tras la muerte de William, Rebekah hered la propiedad y desde el 2013 forma parte del patrimonio de Taylor Swift, quien pag $ 17.5 millones de dlares por la lujosa e histrica mansin. Yet like so much of Harknesss life, what seemed beautiful on the outside was rotting on the inside. While Bill Harkness was alive, he and Rebekah threw raucous parties every weekend. The most famous Pack story from around this time is when, during one particularly boring and respectable soiree, the group decided to spike a punch bowl with laxatives. A New York Times article described Harkness's unusual upbringing. (Harkness reportedly cleaned her pool with Dom Prignon.) Apparently, Harkness liked to reward her boy-toys, because she soon made Castelli the artistic director of her ballet company. [1] Before their divorce in 1946, they had two children; Allen Pierce (b. She even hosted a ballet workshop there for 20 dancers from the Robert Joffrey Company (now known as the Joffrey Ballet) in 1965. Instead, she put herself front and center, natch, and the pictures were often just of her doing lift after lift and living out her Dirty Dancing dreams. As Rebekahs friend said, Just a leg is in there, or maybe half of her head, and an arm. So instead of giving her mother a dignified end, Rebekahs daughter Terry had to carry the rest of her ashes home, bound up loosely in a humble supermarket bag. Harkness took up dancing and ice skating to lose weight and was highly disciplined in both endeavors. 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. Perhaps most tragically, Rebekahs little granddaughter Angel had passed just before Rebekah herself; she was just 10 years old. Pierce. $ 25.93. Near the end of her life, one friend noted that she walked like Frankenstein.. "Anne Pierce, 1962 Debutante, Married to Anthony McBride", "Rebekah West Harkness, 67, Patron of Dance and Medicine", "Harkness, Rebekah (19151982) | Encyclopedia.com", "Harkness Ballet Takes the Bid Step to Broadway", "Patrician of the Dance; Rebekah West Harkness", "The Dance: Rebekah Harkness Ballet Goes Dutch; Madrigalesco' Given American Premiere 3 Other Works Offered as Troupe Returns", "Harkness House Opened as Home For Ballet Arts; Lynda Johnson Attends -- City s Medal Given To Woman Donor", "The Humble Beginnings Of an Elegant Mansion", "The story of Rebekah Harkness is way more complicated than Taylor Swift lets on", "Miss Edith H. Harkness Wed To Kenneth Mckinnon, Lawyer", "Benjamin H. Kean, Shah's Physician, Dies at 81", "Notes on People; Gov. $ 12.19. An artist (a descriptor she bestowed upon herself). In 1947, she married William Hale "Bill" Harkness, an attorney and heir to the Standard Oil fortune of William L. Harkness, which made her one of the wealthiest women in America. Although Catherine's successor Queen Anne Boleyn suffered an infamously dark fate, Aragon's own life was somehow even more tragic. For all her money, Harkness did not have good taste. Aw, how sweet. Surprise, surprise, this phase didnt last long. Uh, how sweet? (I do admit, however, that I'd go a long way to read a sentence like this, spoken by Bertrand Castelli, the co-producer of ''Hair,'' about the time he made love to Rebekah Harkness in her office: ''It was as if we were two camels in the desert who suddenly know that the only way to make an oasis is to really talk sense.'' Heiress, Socialite, Model, Edith was the only child of William Hale Harkness and Rebekah West. The family spent summers at Watch Hill, then an old money, old Hollywood enclave overlooking Block Island Sound. Vogue may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. 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