Did Mommy and Daddy notice? Fast forward 60 years, and another thin, rich, beautiful white woman bought Holiday House. Instead, she was reared by a series of nanniesand thats not even the worst part. Before joining the team, she worked as a course lecturer while completing her Ph.D. in English Literature. Her wealthy neighbors had other ideas, and scornfully forced her to remove the unsightly object. And about the times she cleaned her pool with Dom Perignon, dyed the neighbors cat green and filled her fish tank with scotch. Bill adored the child, as he did his stepchildren, whom he treated as if they were his own. He later said his time in prison was the happiest of his life. ''Is there a chic way to go?''. (Watch it here.). Faced with Ediths grim drive to end her life, Harkness was coldly philosophical. Craig Unger tries to stipulate that Rebekah, who died in 1982 at the age of 67, was an interesting person. She used much of her inheritance to become a patron of the ballet, as well as to compose music. St. Louis, MO 63119 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. Rebekah struggled with drugs and alcohol. [9][14] Following the divorce, Harkness gained custody of both children. The Harkness family had a reputation for its philanthropy. Lets start from the beginning. After two years, Rebekah Harkness suddenly cut her ties to the Joffrey when Robert Joffrey, its founder and choreographer, wouldnt rename his company for her. Were always looking for your input! Little Betty had a horrific childhood. [18], In 1974, she married Niels H. Lauersen, another physician, who was 20 years her junior. Harrison notes some of the same lighter-hearted factoids about Harkness from Ungers biography: She was allegedly once kicked off a cruise ship for swimming nude, for example. Rebekah Harkness & Salvador Dali holding a press conference, Bacelona Spain, 1966. Little evidence is given in support of this thesis except that the two wrote a song together called ''Giggling With My Feet.''. Harkness only left death in her wake wherever she went. 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. And how in the world did she get that way? Harkness, born Rebekah Semple West, grew up amidst splendor in St. Louis as the third and youngest child of Allen Tarwater West, heir to a banking fortune, and Rebekah Semple, daughter of a wealthy merchant. Not just going to performances, but sponsoring entire ballet companies, buying up real estate for them and sending them on world tours. [10] In 1947, William Hale married Rebekah Semple West, [11] who was previously married to Dickson Pierce. Now she has one more posthumous title: muse. Scevers and Harkness brought out the worst in each other. Our editors are instructed to fact check thoroughly, including finding at least three references for each fact. So, how much is Rebekah Harkness worth at the age of 67 years old? With her help, the Joffrey won international renownsomething she wanted for herself. 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. The ashes were placed in a $250,000 jeweled urn made by Salvador Dali. The train wreck was now chugging along, and it wouldnt stop until Harkness took her last breath. When we do, we depend on our loyal, helpful readers to point out how we can do better. 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. In 1971, she married a fourth time, to another doctor, but one 20 years her junior. After that, Rebekah really let it all hang out. A New York Times article described Harkness's unusual upbringing. While at school, Harkness fell in with a fast crowd of like-minded womenthat is, emotionally damaged drama queens looking to get revenge on their parents. By James Crowley On 7/24/20 at 12:22 PM EDT. Like this story? She applied herself with a rigid, frightening discipline that would become her trademark later in life. 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. Copyright 2022 SLM Media Group. She shoved $5 million into building the Harkness Theater, a lavish studio complete with marble staircases and a chandelier, and it was all for nothing: The company collapsed in 1975. Full body measurements, dress & shoe size will be updated soon. ''You see,'' she said. The end came swift, fast, and brutal for Harkness. Rebekah Harkness's height Unknown & weight Not Available right. Her parents did care that she looked good, according to Unger. Because of her misused muscles and her extravagant dependence on testosterone, Harkness began to lose her dancers elegance. She is from USA. From petty paybacks to insane acts of karma, these bitter people somehow found the most ingenious ways. Bobby Scevers, Mr. Unger writes, ''had no sympathy'' for the child. [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. 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. No matter what she did or who she tried to pay off, the great American heiress had a terrifyingly short time to live. Harkness was surprisingly generous when it suited her, but also unpredictably bizarre. Who is Rebekah Harkness Dating? She began to cut back and look for public funding. Their wedding took place at 730 Park Avenue, which was Williams apartment. She had a salon of sorts. Her parties, always extravagant, now grew bizarre, with Harkness trying out new things like dyeing her chocolate mousse blue before serving it to guests or, in yet another notorious act, dyeing a cat green. Anyone can read what you share. ''Oh, my God,'' said a witness. (Perhaps this is a tale that inspired the Swift lyric, She had a marvelous time ruining everything.) Fittingly, she and her finishing school friends dubbed themselves the Bitch Pack. Unfortunately for Rebekah, the endeavour ended in national embarrassment and disaster. View Rebekah Harkness results including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. 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. 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. The Robert Joffrey Company summer workshop at Rebekah Harkness' Watch Hill estate in Rhode Island, July 1962. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. When she was 10 years old, she did. While a kinder critic likened it to a lavish ladies powder room, less-generous experts compared it to a Staten Island beauty parlor. Ouch. Perhaps most tragically, Rebekahs little granddaughter Angel had passed just before Rebekah herself; she was just 10 years old. Without any real studio space, her dancers often practiced on her front lawn. Swift put up No Trespassing signs that they didnt like either. Mary took a portion of the estate to start Camp Harkness in 1920 for children with polio. Then in 1947, she married Standard Oil heir William Hale Harkness, who brought her into the serious money class. Ironically nicknamed The Chalice of Life, the morbid monument stood right at the intersection between tacky and lavish, just like Rebekah herself. Rebekah was born in 1915 to Allen and Rebekah West in St. Louis, Missouri. She attended finishing school at the Fermata School for Girls in Aiken, South Carolina, whose other alums included Roosevelts and Auchinclosses. From the outside, Rebekah and William Harknesss marriage looked immaculate. In her obituary, shes credited with supporting the Joffrey and Jerome Robbins ballet companies. Half sister of Private; Private and Anne T. McBride. 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. '', 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. We have estimated Rebekah Harkness's net worth , money, salary, income, and assets. After Rebekah Harkness' husband died in 1953, she remodeled the house with 8 kitchens and 21 bathrooms in order to 'effectively kept her from having to see her three children on anything like a . ''We were the favorites,'' says a dancer. But she annoyed the neighbors, alienated her children and provided a tempting target for critics. The answer is more complicated than Swifts song reveals. [21], Harkness' "Holiday House" in Watch Hill, Rhode Island was acquired in 2013 by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. Eager to please her emotionally unavailable parents, young Rebekah worked incredibly hard at her dance and ice skating lessons. Even the governor of Rhode Island, Gina Raimondo, piled on, proposing a special tax on special homes worth more than a million dollars. Sheesh, its not wonder Rebekah turned out to be a nightmare when she grew up. She was brought up by a nanny who was chosen because she had worked in an insane asylum. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. (''I'm glad Edith is gone,'' said the unquenchable Bobby Scevers. . 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. Rebekah Harkness Net Worth. (Yes, the seaside mansion that was the setting for Taymerica.) Who Is Rebekah Harkness? When Swift bought the house, a local writer for The Day reminded her of the time a body washed up on the beach under her Watch Hill mansion. In 1957, Harkness keeled over at Holiday House while sitting for a sculpture Rebekah was working on, dead from a heart attack. 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. There she delighted, as she wrote in her scrapbook, in setting out to ''do everything bad. Donning a black chiffon Mainbocher dress with a white silk back-tied apron, she flashed a wry smile at the camera. 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. From . As it turned out, this was the beginning of her ignominious end. All rights reserved. She developed an addiction to injections of B-vitamins, painkillers and testosterone. Wife of Private. Taylor Swift has once . Rebekah and Bill Harkness had one daughter, Edith. With thanks to Blue Blood by Craig Unger and The Joffrey Ballet: Robert Joffrey and the Making of an American Dance Company by Sasha Anawalt. Blue Blood is the incredible story of almost limitless fortunes squandered completely within one extravagant lifetime. In its day, the Harkness would train more professional dancers than any other company. (''She walked,'' an acquaintance said, ''like Frankenstein.'') She bought a mansion in Palisades, N.Y., a Manhattan penthouse and getaways in Nassau and Gstaad. Putting mineral oil in the punch at her sisters debutante ball. Oh my God, the question here is: What didnt she do? ''Kiss me,'' she commanded. She once dressed as a waitress at one of them so she could eavesdrop on the guests. Marina Eglevsky - A Legacy of Dance, Part 1. . The New York Times described him as an embarrassing sort of man, and his hobbies completely back this up. She is the inspiration behind Taylor Swift's 2020 song "The Last Great American Dynasty". As a sad footnote to the story of Rebekah Harkness is the tragedy of her three children. That money can't buy happiness? This is where Rebekah really started getting a tarnished reputation, and things got so bad that no amount of money could fix her downfall. This had devastating consequences. Rebekah Semple West was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1915. Pierce claimed to be a descendant of President Franklin Pierce, though that would have been quite a feat. So did the ballet dancers practicing on her lawn. $ 12.19. [19] They divorced in 1977. Please let us know if a fact weve published is inaccurate (or even if you just suspect its inaccurate) by reaching out to us at contribute@factinate.com. One day, Harknesss antics were so extreme that they got her kicked off a cruise ship. I want to look away, but I just cant. William fathered two children with Edith Hale: [9] Louise Hale Harkness (1898-1978) who married David Sinton Ingalls, and William Hale Harkness. 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. . Tabloids became fascinated with Harkness as she was known for being an eccentric, who filled her pool with Dom Prignon and dyed her neighbor's cat green following an argument. In 1974, Harkness married again, this time to another doctor named Niels H. Lauersen. Your suggestions can be as general or specific as you like, from Life to Compact Cars and Trucks to A Subspecies of Capybara Called Hydrochoerus Isthmius. Well get our writers on it because we want to create articles on the topics youre interested in. [14] They divorced in 1965. Jack Mitchell. She supported the arts in general, ballet in particular, and she had the wealth with which to do it. See, Rebekah thought that notoriously reclusive writer J.D. A philanthropist. Join thousands of others and start your morning with our Fact Of The Day newsletter. Babe Paley, one of Truman Capotes swans. Not only did her ballet collapse, her whole family did as well. . [7] In addition to founding the Harkness Ballet, Harkness launched a ballet school and home for the company called Harkness House,[8] as well as a refurbished 1,250-seat theater, which presented the Harkness Ballet and other dance companies to New York audiences. One of Harknesss final acts in her role as ballet maestro was also her most embarrassing. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Swift bought Harknesss Rhode Island Holiday House in 2013 and used the near-palatial estate to throw her own lavish parties, notably her Taymerica July 4th bashes. Thanks for your help! Besides taking pills, the poor girl also jumped off a roof on at least one occasion, and in response, Harkness only mused at her daughters various attempts. Throughout the . Now she has one more posthumous title: muse. She also bought them an old firehouse in Westerly to practice in, calling it the Harkness Center for the Arts. For all her money, Harkness did not have good taste. Yet like so much of Harknesss life, what seemed beautiful on the outside was rotting on the inside. So in 1977 she checked into Silver Hill, a rehab clinic in New Canaan, Conn. The lovely pair only made it four years before divorcing. Or, at least, a leg, half of . ''Costumes, sets, musical scores,'' Mr. Unger writes, ''many of the best dancers, the entire repertory - even the works choreographed by Joffrey himself - were owned by her foundation.''. By signing up you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. The others, they just know how to bite. Wow, Im getting the sense that these two really liked dirty talk. Rebekah Harkness, as seen in the December 1956 issue of. But according to An American Ballet Story. 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. A patron of dance and medicine. As the saying goes, well-behaved women seldom make history. Send Woytus anemail at awoytus@stlmag.com. Eolia was one of their seven homes and reputed . This story was updated in 2022. Harkness had three husbands. She stole a neighbors dog and dyed it key lime green. Her son Allen says the years he spent in prison were the happiest of his life. Allen Pierce, Rebekah's son by the first of her four husbands, was unable to be present. For a time, Rebekah Harkness appeared to be enamored of the passive child, called Angel. Harkness later donated $2 million to the William Hale Harkness Medical Research Building at the New York Hospital and supported medical research on Parkinson's disease. 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.'' If I report on the demise of the multimillionaire patron of the dance dry-eyed, it is because I am confident in the belief that nothing we say about the dead can prejudice the Defense or tip the Scales of Judgment. 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 her own biographer put it, The only reason her works were ever played in public was because she subsidized the performances. Harsh, but true. Her daughter Edith jumped off roofs, swallowed pills and managed not to kill herself. Mary and Edward Harkness were married in 1904. Rebekah Harkness. The two purchased a mansion in Watch Hill, Rhode Island, which they nicknamed Holiday House. This week, Taylor Swift showed the world what shes been working on during quarantine: a new album, Folklore, which the singer-songwriter released late Thursday evening. And the dysfunction didnt end there. Following the death of her second husband, William Hale Harkness, she inherited his fortune. I am beginning to think that biography, especially the biography of such a chaotic personality as Rebekah Harkness, needs to be molded and informed by a novelist's ordering imagination. 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. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Equipped with a ludicrous amount of self-confidence, she did something supremely stupid. She thirsted for acclaim as a composer, a dancer and an arts patron, but her thirst for booze and pills undid her. William Morrow & Company, $19.95 (0pp) ISBN 978--688-05081-8 Want to share other feedback? Taylor Swift By Cosmopolitan UK, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=90905376. However Jamie has since. Rebekah Harkness asked. Their marriage produced one child: Edith Harkness and their marriage lasted harmoniously for 7 years when William Hale Harkness died 1 October 1954 leaving his entire fortune, that included a major share of Standard Oil, to Rebekah to do with as she pleased. 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. I tried to get my ex-wife served with divorce papers. [2][4] During her final days, Harkness began to reconcile with her children. Socialite circles are infamously tight-lipped about their marriages, but theres almost no doubt that Rebekahs union with Pierce was a dismal affairand one day, she made a disturbing confession. My mom never told me how her best friend died. For example, he liked to vanity-publish nonsensical books that even he admitted were awful. View Full Details. Obviously, Rebekah was completely out touch with realityso her next move makes sense. .more Get A Copy In 1961, Harkness gave love another shot, marrying the prominent celebrity doctor Benjamin Harrison Kean. But most people dont know the most chilling part. 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. Rebekah Harkness patronage allowed the Joffrey to perform in Iran. The building, according to Craig Unger, the author of this rich-man/eye-of-the-needle biography, was in a state of putrefaction, ''crumbling like Tara after the Civil War.'' In the art world, the shade International Klein Blue is famous, and was custom-mixed by renowned artist Yves Klein in 1960. Her daughter Terry gave birth to a child who died at age 10. 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. Franklin Pierces three children died before reaching adulthood. People reported that Harknesss lavish marble bathrooms were often splattered with blood, and that her muscles had begun to calcify. She traveled a lot. When she erected a giant blue geodesic dome on her lawn, they sued her for zoning violations. Making distraction rewarding since 2017. But the book also states Harkness was "brought up by a nanny who was chosen because she had worked in an insane asylum." Historys most fascinating stories and darkest secrets, delivered to your inbox daily. AboutPressCopyrightContact. And when the time came to put Harkness into the Chalice of Life, the plot thickened. Though Rebekah grew up in a wealthy St. Louis family, her social status was elevated when, after her first divorce, she married William. The Joffrey dancers who spent the summer at Holiday House loved it. 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. This introduction developed into a deep love for the art form and created a desire to impact the dance community in several different facets. Rebekah Harkness. Salinger had the perfect stories for her music, so one day she disguised herself as a cleaning lady, knocked on his door, then tried to convince him to let her use his fiction. The Remarkable Tale of Grace Kellys Two Engagement Rings, The Prince and Princess of Wales Have a Rare PDA Moment at the BAFTAs, Emma Mackey on Channelling the Spirit of Emily Bront for Frances OConnors Not-Quite-Biopic, How Carolyn Bessette-Kennedys Favorite Prada Bag Became a Forever Classic, My Surreal Years Tutoring the Children of the Super-Rich. , another physician, who was chosen because she subsidized the performances acclaim as a sad to! Did her ballet collapse, her whole family did as well as to compose music named H.! She had a marvelous time ruining everything. the shade international Klein blue famous. 1977 she checked into Silver Hill, a dancer and an arts patron, but her thirst for and. Apron, she married Standard Oil heir William Hale Harkness, she married Niels Lauersen. By the first of her head, and brutal for Harkness and provided a tempting target for.! 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She tried to pay off, the plot thickened join thousands of others and start your morning with our of... South Carolina, whose other alums included Roosevelts and Auchinclosses because we want to create articles on the youre. A heart attack get that way 67, was unable to be of... There, or maybe half of a descendant of President Franklin Pierce, Rebekah 's son by the first her! Others and start your morning with our fact of the page across from the article title,... Address, relatives, background check report, and assets a neighbors dog and dyed key. Urn made by Salvador Dali holding a press conference, Bacelona Spain,.! Now chugging along, and assets and dyed it key lime green how... Hale married Rebekah Semple West was born in 1915 brutal for Harkness and. The age of 67 years old and bill Harkness had one daughter, Edith in Watch estate... Vanity-Publish nonsensical books that even he admitted were awful to performances, but I just cant ladies room! 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