Rebekah died on 17 June 1982 in Manhattan, New York, USA. In addition to . Copyright 2023 by Factinate.com. 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. She hoped that the fourth time would be the charm, but the socialite had no such luck. The St. Louisborn socialite is the subject of the singer-songwriter's "The Last Great American Dynasty.". She once dressed as a waitress at one of them so she could eavesdrop on the guests. They had a son, Allen, and a daughter, Terry. The 1988 novel was published about Rebekah . After Rebekah Harkness died in 1982, her daughter Terry took her mother's remains home in a Gristede's shopping bag, according to a story in the New York Times. Harkness other daughter, Edith, died of suicide after many attempts. As the most commanding mistress in the French court, she bettered the lives of many and became a beloved figure. An avid dance enthusiast who had studied ballet and Spanish dance, her second marriage - to Standard Oil heir William Hale Harkness - made her one of the wealthiest women in America. Then in 1947, she married Standard Oil heir William Hale Harkness, who brought her into the serious money class. Taylor Swift bought the former Holiday House in 2013 for a reported $17.75 million in cash. She was notorious along the eastern seaboard for her tacky, campy, new money sensibilities, and her Harkness Theater was the epitome of her gaudy aesthetic. 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. He was not convinced. Harkness had to do everything in styleeven when it came to moving on to the next life. Ironically nicknamed The Chalice of Life, the morbid monument stood right at the intersection between tacky and lavish, just like Rebekah herself. Rebekah Harkness Rebekah Harkness (1915-1982) Rebekah Harkness, born Rebekah Semple West, was one of the foremost American patrons of dance. In 1973, at 36 and with his grad-student days not far behind him, Lauersen married 58-year-old Rebekah Harkness, widow to William Hale Harkness, of the Harkness philanthropic dynasty. View Rebekah Harkness results including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. Illustrated. Was she power or pawn? Surprise, surprise, this phase didnt last long. Do you question the accuracy of a fact you just read? Her reason was chilling. While a kinder critic likened it to a lavish ladies powder room, less-generous experts compared it to a Staten Island beauty parlor. Ouch. She said she married her first, photographer Dickson Pierce, because she had nothing else to do. No surprise, that union ended in divorce. Harkness had three husbands. 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. When publicizing her ballet, Harkness became notorious for refusing to showcase any of her talented dancers in the promotional photographs. In the first verse of The Last Great American Dynasty, Swift sings that the ceremony was charming, if a little gauche / Theres only so far new money goes.. Though Harkness didnt seem to care that he was using her, she probably should have. $ 18.79. The dancers, choreographers, composers and designers were pioneers and experimenters. Send Woytus anemail at awoytus@stlmag.com. Scevers and Harkness brought out the worst in each other. Faced with Ediths grim drive to end her life, Harkness was coldly philosophical. They complained she cared more about the dancers than she cared about them. She and her friends called themselves the Bitch Pack and disrupted debutante parties. $ 25.93. "Rebekah rode up on the afternoon train, it was sunny" The very first line of the song introduces the main character, Rebekah West Harkness, a real heiress who was also a composer, ballet mistress, and sculptor whose life presents several interesting anecdotes. She also helped discover and train many acclaimed dancers, regardless of their race, background or body shape. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. ''Is there a chic way to go?''. While at her fancy finishing school, Harkness didnt seem to care that her classmates were people with last names like Roosevelt. Instead, she scrawled in her scrapbook that she wanted to do everything bad. Well, she certainly achieved her goal. Harkness had quite the life according to The New York Times (opens in new tab) . Watch the video for "The Last Great American Dynasty": Woytus is St. Louis Magazine's deputy editor, coveringnews and culture. [18], In 1974, she married Niels H. Lauersen, another physician, who was 20 years her junior. She was surrounded by a group her son Allen described as ''all the fairies flying off the floor, the blackmailing lawyers, the weirdos, the people in the trances.'' Harkness started acting out early in her adolescence, and her antics would put any other mean girl to shame. For one, her emotionally frigid parents wanted absolutely nothing to do with raising her. Equipped with a ludicrous amount of self-confidence, she did something supremely stupid. 432 pp. As yet another troubled member of the family, Allen had gotten into a fight, slain a man, and was eventually sentenced with manslaughter. Mary and Edward Harkness were married in 1904. Their antics soon became legendary. She had a salon of sorts. She spent a small fortune buying her way into the dance world, surrounding herself with dancers, musicians and choreographers. Its here where Rebekah catapulted into high society. People talked about the time she dressed up as a maid and served drinks at her own party. BLUE BLOOD By Craig Unger. Harkness died of cancer in 1982 in New York City. [12] Rebekahs daughter Edith was clinically depressed and suicidal for much of her life (wonder why), and spent scores of years in and out of mental institutions following near fatal attempts at self-harm. In 1974, Harkness married again, this time to another doctor named Niels H. Lauersen. Why? She did this in grand - if occasionally Marie Antoinette-ish -style. [9][14] Following the divorce, Harkness gained custody of both children. She was 67.) Harkness had no problem dropping Joffrey like a hot potato when he wouldnt support her dismal vanity projects. All of the work and much of the music was original. Sep 27, 2021 David Rubenstein Donates $10 Million to Expand Arts and Civic Engagement Initiatives at Lincoln Center. Rebekah Harkness's Net Worth: $1-5 Million Age, Height & Body Measurements Rebekah Harkness has been died on 17 June 1982. And about the times she cleaned her pool with Dom Perignon, dyed the neighbors cat green and filled her fish tank with scotch. As it turned out, this was the beginning of her ignominious end. Though Rebekah channeled Marie Antoinette, her patronage of the Joffrey brought the company international fame. 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. Rebekah West Harkness (April 17, 1915 June 17, 1982) also known as Betty Harkness, was an American composer, sculptor, dance patron, and philanthropist who founded the Harkness Ballet. This story was updated in 2022. Sheesh, its not wonder Rebekah turned out to be a nightmare when she grew up. Rebekahs parents might not have cared a whit about loving their daughter, but they sure as heck cared about what she looked like. Parents. September 30, 2013 by knelson. ''We were the loved ones.'' 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. She even hosted a ballet workshop there for 20 dancers from the Robert Joffrey Company (now known as the Joffrey Ballet) in 1965. He. The Harkness Ballet would eventually have two touring companies, a youth ballet (which taught Patrick Swayze) and its own theater. In 1962 she turned her Rhode Island estate, Holiday House, into a summer dance camp for the entire Joffrey Ballet company. 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? Perhaps most tragically, Rebekahs little granddaughter Angel had passed just before Rebekah herself; she was just 10 years old. The Joffrey dancers who spent the summer at Holiday House loved it. Nine servants and three cooks kept the place running. 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. Reviewers agreed he was one of the companys only shining lights. Silver Gelatin. To zero peoples surprise, the Harkness family was utterly dysfunctional. A philanthropist. She is the inspiration behind Taylor Swift's 2020 song "The Last Great American Dynasty". When she went to the doctors office, they found a frightening problem. Rebekah Harkness, composer, sculptor, dance patron, and philanthropist who founded the Harkness Ballet, photographed in her office in 1964. Image courtesy Holiday House, Courtesy Google, Maxar Technologies. The resulting damages to herself, her companies and her children were heartbreaking. Swift put up No Trespassing signs that they didnt like either. Swift later connects herself to Harkness in the final moments of the song: Holiday House sat quietly on that beach / Free of women with madness, their men and bad habits / And then it was bought by me, Who knows, if I never showed up, what couldve been / There goes the loudest woman this town has ever seen / I had a marvelous time ruining everything, I had a marvelous time ruining everything / A marvelous time ruining everything / A marvelous time / I had a marvelous time, Also in the song, Swift mentions some of Harkness antics. When Harkness offered to pay Ella Fitzgerald to sing some of her pop songs, Fitzgerald wouldnt do it. With her help, the Joffrey won international renownsomething she wanted for herself. However, the connection between the two women, despite being eras apart, may go beyond mere real estate. Lets just, The Truth Always Comes Out: Dark Family Secrets Exposed, Entrancing Facts About Madame de Pompadour, France's Most Powerful Mistress, Fortunate Facts About Nepo Babies, The Stars Of The Silver Spoon, Flamboyant Facts About Bugsy Siegel, The Wiseguy Who Built Vegas, Licentious Facts About Marie-Louise OMurphy, King Louis XVs Little Mistress, Explosive Facts About Aaron Carter, The Doomed Child Star. Historys most fascinating stories and darkest secrets, delivered to your inbox daily. Anyone can read what you share. Now, a grown woman can do whatever she wants in her own bed, but this was a strange choiceand not because of the age gap. She even started a company of her own in 1964: the Harkness Ballet. Pierce claimed to be a descendant of President Franklin Pierce, though that would have been quite a feat. Craig Unger tries to stipulate that Rebekah, who died in 1982 at the age of 67, was an interesting person. [4], In the 1960s, Harkness became well known as a philanthropist and patron of the arts. Walker & Co. with George Herbert Walker, grandfather and great-grandfather of the Bush presidents. Rebekah Harkness and her Harkness Ballet Company photographed at her estate in Watch Hill, R.I., 1964. Although Catherine's successor Queen Anne Boleyn suffered an infamously dark fate, Aragon's own life was somehow even more tragic. Her ego, however, overrode common sense and proportion. Anne married Anthony McBride in 1966[1] and had a severely brain-damaged baby who died at age 10. Immediate Needs: $1,500. ''We were the favorites,'' says a dancer. But most people dont know the most chilling part. Upon her death in 1982, Rebekah Harkness was called many things in her New York Times obituary. Blue Blood: How Rebekah Harkness, One of the Richest Women in the World, Destroyed a Great American Family Craig Unger. She all but fired him from his own company, then twisted the knife by taking most of his dancers with her to form her new, solo Harkness Ballet. Dec 8, 2020 Taylor Swift and Rebekah Harkness may have been born decades apart, but it seems they shared a talent for dominating the headlines. 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. In 1915, Rebekah West was born in St. Louis to Mr. and Mrs. Allen Tarwater West. Rebekah Harkness was born in 1915 to a rich, emotionally frigid St. Louis family. The couple took up residence in an enormous eight -kitchen, 21 -bathroom mansion (an arrangement that "effectively kept her from having to see her three children on anything like a regular. (The music site NME is praising the tune as "a contender for the best Taylor Swift song ever written"; you can watch the official lyric video below.) Join thousands of others and start your morning with our Fact Of The Day newsletter. Our editors are instructed to fact check thoroughly, including finding at least three references for each fact. Blue Blood is the incredible story of almost limitless fortunes squandered completely within one extravagant lifetime. ''How should she do it?'' Making distraction rewarding since 2017. William Hale died of a heart attack in 1954. She went to Fermata, a. 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. Pierce was the descendant of Franklin Pierce, the 14th President of the United States, and seemed like a good match for the ambitious girlexcept really, he was just a starter husband. Although she came from a well-off Midwest family, William and his fortune put Rebekah into a different social stratosphere. An awning saved her life. The 1982 case is mentioned in journalist Craig Unger's biography of Annabelle's mother, Rebekah Harkness, called "Blue Blood." The book, published in 1988, offers an unflattering snapshot . Taylor Swift has once . (''I'm glad Edith is gone,'' said the unquenchable Bobby Scevers. Mary took a portion of the estate to start Camp Harkness in 1920 for children with polio. Donning a black chiffon Mainbocher dress with a white silk back-tied apron, she flashed a wry smile at the camera. Even Harkness, who had been a somewhat disinterested mother, began spending time with the children. 1940) and Anne Terry Pierce (b. Mother of Private. All the essentials: top fashion stories, editors picks, and celebrity style. Meanwhile, the booze and the pills caught up with her. [20], Harkness died of stomach cancer in her Manhattan home on June 17, 1982 at the age of 67. And then there were herthree children. Even the governor of Rhode Island, Gina Raimondo, piled on, proposing a special tax on special homes worth more than a million dollars. The music video featured the beach and the waves from the house, just as Rebekah Harkness would have seen it. Her first major contributions were helping to fund the early . Rebekah Harkness Photo: Jack Mitchell/Getty Images. Oh my God, the question here is: What didnt she do? Born in 1915 in St. Louis, Missouri, her father Allen Tarwater was a powerful stockbroker, while her mother, also named Rebekah, was a perfectly turned out trophy wife. Her daughter Edith jumped off roofs, swallowed pills and managed not to kill herself. 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