And then in 2020, the houses owner, Taylor Swift, wrote a song about Rebekah Harkness, called The Last Great American Dynasty. Rebekah Harkness was born on 17 April 1915 in St Louis, Missouri, USA. 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. She went to Fermata, a South Carolina finishing school that had sheltered Roosevelts, Biddles and Auchinclosses. 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. Immediate Needs: $1,500. "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. Fast forward 60 years, and another thin, rich, beautiful white woman bought Holiday House. Her marriage to William Hale Bill Harkness, an attorney and heir to the Standard Oil fortune of William L. Hark Harkness other daughter, Edith, died of suicide after many attempts. Rebekah Semple West was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1915. She maintains an online podcast that is available on iTunes or online at http://playerplaza.podbean.com . The latest fashion news, beauty coverage, celebrity style, fashion week updates, culture reviews, and videos on Vogue.com. When I first saw someone bring up Blue Blood (The story of Rebekah Harkness and how one of the richest families in America descended into drugs, madness, suicide and violence), I was lurking in a Taylor Swift Facebook group. . Little Betty had a horrific childhood. Wealthy, elegant, and beautiful, Harkness seemed to have it allfrom her oil baron husband to her notoriously raucous parties. She moved hundreds of thousands of dollars from one bank to another for the pleasure of confusing her accountants. Image courtesy Holiday House, Courtesy Google, Maxar Technologies. And when she discovered one of her Joffrey dancers didnt own a suit, she sent all the Joffrey men to Saks and all the women to Bergdorfs for formalwear. She was also a composer. Eolia was one of their seven homes and reputed . P.O. Styling herself as the life of the party, Harkness did things like throw plates at the ships Filipino orchestra, swim in her birthday suit in full view of other passengers, and send out strings of swears so loudly that the ocean liner eventually had no choice but to send the beautiful, foul-mouthed socialite off the boat. Her son Allen says the years he spent in prison were the happiest of his life. She even hosted a ballet workshop there for 20 dancers from the Robert Joffrey Company (now known as the Joffrey Ballet) in 1965. One sometimes wonders if the point of all these poor-little-rich-girl/boy biographies is to lull the rest of us into a false sense of security: She is so unlike us that we are not encouraged to reflect upon our own mortality, the contemplation of which is a healthy and necessary exercise. 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. At the very end, according to Bobby Scevers, as she lay dying of cancer, ''It was complete chaos. Harkness died of cancer in 1982 in New York City. Her daughter Terry gave birth to a severely retarded and disabled child. Though Rebekah grew up in a wealthy St. Louis family, her social status was elevated when, after her first divorce, she married William. Rebekah Harkness's Net Worth: $1-5 Million Age, Height & Body Measurements Rebekah Harkness has been died on 17 June 1982. Wife of Private. She danced, too, and composed music. 314-918-3000. 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. Just after 1966, Harkness became a grandmother when her daughter Terry gave birth to a little girl. The music video featured the beach and the waves from the house, just as Rebekah Harkness would have seen it. The Joffrey had a price to pay for Rebekah Harknesss support. [14] They divorced in 1965. 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. [18], In 1974, she married Niels H. Lauersen, another physician, who was 20 years her junior. 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. The pair was horribly mismatched, with Lauersen a whopping 20 years younger than his bride. She was brought up by a nanny who was chosen because she had worked in an insane asylum. Making distraction rewarding since 2017. Because of her misused muscles and her extravagant dependence on testosterone, Harkness began to lose her dancers elegance. In 1956, Harkness burst onto the high society scene after. West co-founded G.H. In November of 1977, her son Allen shot a man during a brawl in Miami. She supported the arts in general, ballet in particular, and she had the wealth with which to do it. How should she do it? She wondered. She had a salon of sorts. 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. (Her reasoning was thus: I hope the beauty of Harkness House will persuade some of these people that ballet need not be dingy and that by their patronage they are contributing to the splendid and glamorous.) Yet disagreements over artistic direction led to the companys disbanding in 1970. That money can't buy happiness? To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. 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. 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. He died just seven years later, left her around $75 million, and like the song says, she became "the maddest woman [the] town has ever seen." In the most fabulous way possible, of course. Nonetheless, Harkness actually doted on the babe, and for a time it seemed like she was going to be a better granny than she was a mommy. This arrangement effectively kept her from having to see her three children on anything like a regular basis. Shop for Rebekah Harkness at Walmart.com. Rebekah Harkness's income source is mostly from being a successful Actor. It was shaping up to be a white-picket fence brooduntil, that is, Rebekah proved herself to be an utterly horrific mother. See the article in its original context from. 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. Harkness died of cancer at 67 in 1982. Rebekah died that same year after a long bout with cancer. We have estimated Rebekah Harkness's net worth , money, salary, income, and assets. Culture Taylor Swift Folk Albums Oil. Upon her death in 1982, Rebekah Harkness was called many things in her New York Times obituary. Near the end of her life, one friend noted that she walked like Frankenstein.. Is there a chic way to go? One day, Rebekah would find out that question for herself. Shed had a brief, unhappy marriage to a doctor in the early 1960s. Reportedly, she wanted these updates so that she could see as little of her children as possible. It was so wonderful - everybody running around signing wills and trying on different wigs.''. Her daughter Terry tried, unsuccessfully, to invalidate her will with the help of attorney Roy Cohn ( as in Senator Joseph McCarthy's chief counsel Roy Cohn. In 1962 she turned her Rhode Island estate, Holiday House, into a summer dance camp for the entire Joffrey Ballet company. As it turned out, this was the beginning of her ignominious end. Blue Blood is the incredible story of almost limitless fortunes squandered completely within one extravagant lifetime. 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. In a matter of years, her life would go from classy to just plain messy. Mother of Private. Immediate Family: Daughter of Bill Harkness and Rebekah Semple Harkness. The parties continued when she brought the entire Joffrey to Watch Hill in 1962 and 1963. Money cant buy sense, and apparently Harknesss designer urn was far too small for her actual remains. Rebekah Harkness, composer, sculptor, dance patron, and philanthropist who founded the Harkness Ballet, photographed in her office in 1964. Want to tell us to write facts on a topic? Ugh. ''Blue Blood'' is edifying only insofar as it raises questions about what a biography should be. The two purchased a mansion in Watch Hill, Rhode Island, which they nicknamed Holiday House. She hoped that the fourth time would be the charm, but the socialite had no such luck. Rebekah Harkness was born in 1915 to a rich, emotionally frigid St. Louis family. The resulting damages to herself, her companies and her children were heartbreaking. Rocky Finds His Heart. Her reason was chilling. (No such record could be found, but the famous Surrealist artist did design the $250,000 jewel-studded urn that held herashes. 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. 44 Rebekah Harkness Pictures Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images FILTERS CREATIVE EDITORIAL VIDEO 44 Rebekah Harkness Pictures Premium High Res Photos Browse 44 rebekah harkness pictures stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. Rebekah Harkness's height Unknown & weight Not Available right. Not just going to performances, but sponsoring entire ballet companies, buying up real estate for them and sending them on world tours. 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