At the very end, according to Bobby Scevers, as she lay dying of cancer, ''It was complete chaos. According to Blue Blood, a book by Craig Unger, Harkness wrote in her scrapbook that at Fermata, she set out do everything bad. An example of her mischievousness? In 1961, Harkness gave love another shot, marrying the prominent celebrity doctor Benjamin Harrison Kean. She retaliated by dying a neighbors cat green. Rarely does singer and songstress Taylor Swift write songs about someone outside her immediate circle. 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. When she went to the doctors office, they found a frightening problem. She loved to pour Dom Perignon into her pool and let guests swim around in the bubbly. After that, Rebekah really let it all hang out. She also studied orchestration with Lee Hoiby and received a Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the Franklin Pierce College in Rindge, New Hampshire, in 1968.[12]. However Jamie has since. 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. And the dysfunction didnt end there. Perhaps most tragically, Rebekahs little granddaughter Angel had passed just before Rebekah herself; she was just 10 years old. But why? West co-founded G.H. (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? Just after 1966, Harkness became a grandmother when her daughter Terry gave birth to a little girl. People already thought she had betrayed Joffrey, but they now watched in horror as she ran her ballet into the ground. Rebekah and Bill Harkness had one daughter, Edith. Silver Gelatin. For a time in the 1950s, socialite Rebekah Harkness was true American royalty. It had hand-carved Louis XIV chairs and a huge mural that featured the companys dancers as well as Rebekah Harkness in the nude. Though Kean consulted with multiple US presidents, he also had big-time mafia ties. But according to An American Ballet Story. Bill adored the child, as he did his stepchildren, whom he treated as if they were his own. No clan is left untouched, and even families that seem happy and normal on. A patron of dance and medicine. Unfit for mothering, unfit for ordinary love, unfit - untrained - to be the caretaker of a great fortune, was she altogether silly or altogether bad? People reported that Harknesss lavish marble bathrooms were often splattered with blood, and that her muscles had begun to calcify. Factinate is a fact website that is dedicated to finding and sharing fun facts about science, history, animals, films, people, and much more. The others, they just know how to bite. Wow, Im getting the sense that these two really liked dirty talk. Rebekah died on 17 June 1982 in Manhattan, New York, USA. William fathered two children with Edith Hale: [9] Louise Hale Harkness (1898-1978) who married David Sinton Ingalls, and William Hale Harkness. Though Rebekah grew up in a wealthy St. Louis family, her social status was elevated when, after her first divorce, she married William. It was shaping up to be a white-picket fence brooduntil, that is, Rebekah proved herself to be an utterly horrific mother. And she gave Alvin Ailey his first commission. But Rebekah made the most of it. ''We were the loved ones.'' Rebekah Harkness Photo: Jack Mitchell/Getty Images. This story was updated in 2022. 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. Meanwhile, the booze and the pills caught up with her. 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.'' Though Harkness didnt seem to care that he was using her, she probably should have. While a kinder critic likened it to a lavish ladies powder room, less-generous experts compared it to a Staten Island beauty parlor. Ouch. Madame de Pompadour didn't just share King Louis XV's bed, she also shared his power. Rebekah Harkness keeps his personal and love life private. "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. BLUE BLOOD By Craig Unger. Like this story? Rebekah West Harkness (ne Semple West;[1] 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. Besides despising Rebekahs children, Scevers also hated her disabled granddaughter Angel. She used much of her inheritance to become a patron of the ballet, as well as to compose music. 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. Image courtesy Holiday House, Courtesy Google, Maxar Technologies. Her parents packed Rebekah off to finishing school. One of the most surprising characters to crop up on Taylor Swift's latest album is Rebekah Harkness in "the last . [10] In 1947, William Hale married Rebekah Semple West, [11] who was previously married to Dickson Pierce. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. In 1961, Rebekah Harkness became the sponsor of the late Robert Joffrey's small ballet troupe. 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. Her daughter Edith killed herself. We were in heaven, said Danish ballerina Lone Isaksen. She is from USA. 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. Not just going to performances, but sponsoring entire ballet companies, buying up real estate for them and sending them on world tours. Harkness died of cancer in 1982 in New York City. Love and Empowerment. So in 1977 she checked into Silver Hill, a rehab clinic in New Canaan, Conn. REBEKAH HARKNESS earned a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's degree in social work from the University of Utah. [23], An American Ballet Story is an upcoming documentary film directed by Leslie Strait and sponsored by the International Documentary Association. Sadly, the socialites seemingly bottomless cruelty would soon hit even greater lows. De . Edith often used her mothers many, many pills to perform these attemptsand Rebekah was anything but empathetic. A philanthropist. Wade, teaches a dance school for children and directs 2 dance companies, one providing performing opportunities for children and one for adults. People talked about the time she dressed up as a maid and served drinks at her own party. The socialite was born in 1915 to a wealthy family in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1972, she bought an old theater near Lincoln Center and refurbished it on a grand scale as the first theater devoted exclusively to ballet. They called her ballets worthless, her music crap. They featured fireworks, boat rides and a giant inflatable water slide. Clark Gable, Douglas Fairbanks and Andrew Mellon owned homes there. The Harknesses were married for a brief periodjust seven years. '', 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. 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. The caption read: A young woman with a surprising range of interests, Mrs. Harkness is a sculptor, a musician of professional standing (shes a member of ASCAP), a skier (shell soon off to her chalet in Gstaad with her three children for a holiday), and an active supporter of many charities. Below her in the spread? .more Get A Copy Rebekah and Bill Harkness had one daughter, Edith. In 1954, something curious happened to Rebekah Harkness: Her oil tycoon husband passed. rebekah harkness children. Send Woytus anemail at [email protected]. That marriage lasted three years. Franklin Pierces three children died before reaching adulthood. Walker & Co. with George Herbert Walker, grandfather and great-grandfather of the Bush presidents. There she delighted, as she wrote in her scrapbook, in setting out to ''do everything bad. My association with Rebekah Harkness was based on creating a business venture that would make a profit. [4], In the 1960s, Harkness became well known as a philanthropist and patron of the arts. And when the time came to put Harkness into the Chalice of Life, the plot thickened. Faced with Ediths grim drive to end her life, Harkness was coldly philosophical. Doctors told Harkness that she had one ailment that no amount of money could cure: She was dying of stomach cancer. She was brought up by a nanny who was chosen because she had worked in an insane asylum. 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. Before she passed, the socialite spent $250,000 to commission a bedazzled urn from none other than Salvador Dali. 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. With that, Rebekahs unconditional love evaporated. ''We were the favorites,'' says a dancer. 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. 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. 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. Category 1960s Pop Art Black and White Photography. Save money. Hey, all publicity is good publicityand Rebekahs need to be in the spotlight soon grew to disturbing proportions. She even hosted a ballet workshop there for 20 dancers from the Robert Joffrey Company (now known as the Joffrey Ballet) in 1965. A terrible story is told here. The Harkness Foundation for Dance still exists. One of Harknesss final acts in her role as ballet maestro was also her most embarrassing. ''When they started talking about putting the nursery over my room . In 1962 she turned her Rhode Island estate, Holiday House, into a summer dance camp for the entire Joffrey Ballet company. Picking up a pen was my way of escaping into fantasy, history, and memory, Swift says of the inspiration behind her album, Folklore. When publicizing her ballet, Harkness became notorious for refusing to showcase any of her talented dancers in the promotional photographs. The same fate befell the popular tunes she composed. The couple divorced in 1977but Rebekahs life was about to take a much darker turn. These are facts of which we have already been apprised. 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. Her grandfather founded the St. Louis Union Trust Company, ensuring she grew up comfortably. Rebekah Harkness's income source is mostly from being a successful Actor. The Robert Joffrey Company summer workshop at Rebekah Harkness' Watch Hill estate in Rhode Island, July 1962. Harkness had quite the life according to The New York Times (opens in new tab) . 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. Harkness was friends with a young Potter Stewart, whom she affectionately called "Potsie," and their relationship was written about by her biographer Craig Unger. How should she do it? She wondered. She also expanded Holiday House to include eight kitchens, 42 rooms and 21 baths. 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. [4], On October 1, 1947, Harkness married William Hale Harkness (19001954), the son of William Lamon Harkness, both Standard Oil heirs. In addition to . Knowing all this (and much, much more; Mr. Unger withholds no ugly or racy detail), what is it exactly that we have learned? From being a successful Actor Rebekahs friend said, just a leg is there!, and even families that seem happy and normal on about to take a much darker turn apprised! 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