Done button to see the photos in the gallery. Before his death in August 1954, they had one child together, Edith Hale Harkness. . GREAT NEWS! Oops, some error occurred while uploading your photo(s). Please complete the captcha to let us know you are a real person. We have 2 volunteers within ten miles of your requested photo location. Mr. Unger, who records interviews uncritically and unreflectively, does not permit us to know exactly how he feels about his subject. A system error has occurred. Your account has been locked for 30 minutes due to too many failed sign in attempts. In 1961, Rebekah Harkness became the sponsor of the late Robert Joffrey's small ballet troupe. We have set your language to 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 Her daughter Terry gave birth to a severely retarded and disabled child. 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. For a time, Rebekah Harkness appeared to be enamored of the passive child, called Angel. Craig Unger authored Blue Blood in 1988, six years after Harkness's death (in which her remains were placed in a $250,000 urn designed by Dalí). Please check your email and click on the link to activate your account. 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. ... Heiress, Socialite, Model, Edith was the only child of William Hale Harkness and Rebekah West. After she was widowed, Mrs. Harkness renovated her Rhode Island house; she installed 8 kitchens and 21 baths. 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. Are you sure that you want to report this flower to administrators as offensive or abusive? 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. Rebekah West Harkness, a philanthropist who gave millions to the dance and to medicine, died of cancer Thursday in her Manhattan home. I just hit the ceiling. Death: 22 Aug 1982 (aged 33) Bethesda, Montgomery County, Maryland, USA. For Edits select Suggest Edits on the memorial page. Remove advertising from a memorial by sponsoring it for just $5. Harkness died of cancer at 67 in 1982. A terrible story is told here. Bobby Scevers, Rebekah's lover, 25 years younger than she and a self-declared homosexual, pronounced her children ''the most worthless, selfish, useless creatures I've ever seen.'' Include gps location with grave photos where possible. Click to copy. × It might also have been interesting to see how a feminist writer would have assimilated the facts of Rebekah Harkness's sorry life. In 1957, Harkness keeled over at Holiday House while sitting for a sculpture Rebekah was working on, dead from a heart attack. This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. ''The others, they just know how to bite.'') Add to your scrapbook. At the very end, according to Bobby Scevers, as she lay dying of cancer, ''It was complete chaos. Rebekah Harkness succumbed to her illness on June 17, 1982. . Her daughter Edith killed herself. ''Is there a chic way to go?''. When the Joffrey Ballet refused to rename their company in Harkness' honor, she withdrew funding and hired most of the Joffery dancers to her new company, the Harkness Ballet. Rebekah Harkness became one of the wealthiest women in America after she inherited her husband's vast Standard Oil fortune when he died in 1953. After her husband’s death, Harkness renovated the home she owned in Watch Hill, Rhode Island. By Heran Mamo. Failed to delete memorial. . . Taylor Swift surprised her fans at the end of last week when she released a new album, Folklore, with many spending the weekend dissecting the set of new songs and the meanings behind the singer's lyrics. 432 pp. William Harkness died in 1954, only seven years after their marriage, and Rebekah became one of the wealthiest women in the world. based on information from your browser. Flowers added to the memorial appear on the bottom of the memorial or here on the Flowers tab. ''I can't believe it took her this long to succeed.'') 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. Family Members. Are you sure that you want to delete this photo? They didn't fit: ''Just a leg is in there, or maybe half of her head, and an arm,'' said one of Rebekah's friends. Jack Mitchell Getty Images Rebekah was also married four times, founded an eponymous arts foundation, and sponsored Robert Joffrey's ballet troupe for … 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. She dyed a cat green. New York: William Morrow & Company. Harkness died in 1982, and Swift was born in 1989 (also the name of one of her albums). You are only allowed to leave one flower per day for any given memorial. It is possible to write an edifying biography about an unedifying life. (Photos: Jack Mitchell/Getty Images, Beth Garrabrant) As the saying goes, well-behaved women seldom make history. You can still file a request but no one will be notified. Rebekah Harkness was practically destined to become a spoiled little rich girl. We were unable to submit your feedback at this time. Try again later. Try again later. Also an additional 2 volunteers within fifty miles. Her passion, such as it was, burned itself out quickly, coincidentally with the baby's pulling a ribbon out of her hair. 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. Verify and try again. (''I'm glad Edith is gone,'' said the unquenchable Bobby Scevers. ''You see,'' she said. Share this memorial using social media sites or email. Upon her death in 1982, Rebekah Harkness was called many things in her New York Times obituary. Instead, "The Last Great American Dynasty" tells the unbelievable true story of Rebekah Harkness, the controversial socialite who used to live in the pop star's Rhode Island mansion. Her grandfather founded the St. Louis Union Trust Company. To add a flower, click the “Leave a Flower” button. We have a volunteer within fifty miles of your requested photo location. Oops, something didn't work. Becoming a Find a Grave member is fast, easy and FREE. The email does not appear to be a valid email address. This arrangement effectively kept her from having to see her three children on anything like a regular basis. Let the little creature die!'' Her ego, however, overrode common sense and proportion. GREAT NEWS! One could almost feel sorry for her. And how in the world did she get that way? Place the pin on the map to plot a location. 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. The couple married in … Try again later. ''Money can buy anything.'' . It was so wonderful - everybody running around signing wills and trying on different wigs.''. Rebekah died of cancer in 1982. Resend Activation Email. This account has been disabled. (Allegedly, it was a cat if it matters.) Copied to clipboard. Convicted of murder in the second degree, he was behind the bars of a Florida jail. ''So absurd,'' Mr. Scevers pronounced. Try again later. Rebekah Harkness. No animated GIFs, photos with additional graphics (borders, embellishments. She supported the arts in general, ballet in particular, and she had the wealth with which to do it. . The song gives an overview of the life story of American socialite Rebekah Harkness, who was the previous owner of Swift’s Watch Hill, Rhode Island home.But while the famous “Holiday House” may have been in part the connection that drew Swift to write about Harkness, “[Harkness’s] saltbox house on the coast” is not where her story begins. She stole a neighbor’s dog and dyed it key lime green. These are facts of which we have already been apprised. The ashes were placed in a $250,000 jeweled urn made by Salvador Dali. The Rhode Island estate sat empty for years, until Swift's arrival. On October 1, 1947, she married William Hale Harkness, the son of William Lamon Harkness, both Standard Oil heirs. Through the Rebekah Harkness Foundation, Harkness sponsored Jerome Robbins and the Robert Joffrey Ballet. Her daughter Terry hired Roy Cohn in a (failed) attempt to have her will invalidated. ''How should she do it?'' Please select a county or city to continue. We have 2 volunteers within fifty miles of your requested photo location. We have a volunteer within ten miles of your requested photo location. The resulting damages to … Raised primarily by a series of nannies, Harkness took up dancing and ice skating to lose weight and was highly disciplined in both endeavors. Her ashes were placed in a $250,000 urn created by Salvador Dalí. Rebekah Harkness stars in Taylor Swift's song "The Last Great American Dynasty." An email has been sent to the person who requested the photo informing them that you have fulfilled their request, There is an open photo request for this memorial. In the 1960s, Harkness became well known as a philanthropist and patron of the arts. 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.'' In addition to founding the Harkness Ballet, Harkness launched a ballet school and home for the company called Harkness House, as well as a refurbished 1,250-seat theater, which presented the Harkness Ballet and other dance companies to New York audiences. Harkness died of stomach cancer in her Manhattan home on June 17, 1982. '', 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. 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 ashes originally were placed in a $250,000 urn designed by Salvador Dalí. “Little by little, Holiday House, as the Watch Hill Estate was called, began to acquire the character of Rebekah’s private living room. Bobby Scevers, Mr. Unger writes, ''had no sympathy'' for the child. She had a salon of sorts. ''We were the loved ones.'' Rebekah Harkness had ambition and drive. Saint Louis, St. Louis City, Missouri, USA, Manhattan, New York County (Manhattan), New York, USA. '', This post-mortem mischief was going on at Harkness House, the East 75th Street town house headquarters of the Harkness Ballet Foundation, which Mrs. Harkness had modeled on the St. Petersburg Ballet School. When she was 10 years old, she did. Rebekah Harkness. Blue Blood is a story of tragic proportions. That even the rich must die? Before his death in August 1954, they had one child together, Edith Hale Harkness. Please try again later. She did this in grand - if occasionally Marie Antoinette-ish -style. ''We were the favorites,'' says a dancer. She had spent the 1987 equivalent of $38 million on a failed enterprise. Rebekah Harkness was born in 1915 to a rich, emotionally frigid St. Louis family. All photos appear on this tab and here you can update the sort order of photos on memorials you manage. 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. Edit a memorial you manage or suggest changes to the memorial manager. Might Mrs. Harkness be seen as a casualty of her own doomed and defiled expectations? Little evidence is given in support of this thesis except that the two wrote a song together called ''Giggling With My Feet.''. I don't want this screaming baby over my room! It's a biography about the socialite with the subtitle “She had everything—beauty, wealth, and glamour—until obsession, madness, and suicide destroyed it all." She rang J. D. Salinger's bell dressed as a cleaning lady, having conceived the harebrained scheme that the reclusive writer's short stories be put to music. Translation on Find a Grave is an ongoing project. You need a Find a Grave account to add things to this site. 6 Things to Know About Rebekah Harkness, the Muse Behind Taylor Swift's 'The Last Great American Dynasty' By Heran Mamo. Are you sure that you want to delete this memorial? He likes to talk about blowing people away. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. For help using the website visit our help page or contact support@findagrave.com. Others tell of sumptuous real-life figures like Rebekah Harkness, a divorcee who married the heir to Standard Oil — and whose home Swift purchased 31 years after her death. Through the William Hale Harkness Foundation, she sponsored construction of a medical research building at the New York Hospital and supported a number of medical research projects. ''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.''. Thanks for using Find a Grave, if you have any feedback we would love to hear from you. Enter a valid email address and a feedback message. Previously sponsored memorials or famous memorials will not have this option. But as the years went by Rebekah became more and more eccentric. Make sure that the file is a photo. See the article in its original context from. Please try again later. Rebekah Harkness circa 1966. They divorced in 1965. He was previously married to Elisabeth Grant. (''She walked,'' an acquaintance said, ''like Frankenstein.'') 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. We do not have any photo volunteers within fifty miles of your requested photo location. In 1974, she married Niels H. Lauersen, another physician, who was 20 years her junior. Plese check the I'm not a robot checkbox.'. Craig Unger, a former editor at New York magazine, appears to be dazzled by all this, although it is sometimes hard to tell whether his breathlessness arises from approval, disapproval, sadness, awe or simple bewilderment. One photo, additional photos will appear here or select from your browser view... Of love to hear from you virtual cemetery, your clipboard for pasting or Print too many failed sign attempts! Alter, edit or update them a feedback message supported the arts in general, Ballet in particular and! Roofs, swallowed pills and managed not to kill herself link to activate your has... Wonderful - everybody running around signing wills and trying on different wigs. '' kitchens. Within fifty miles of your requested photo location cancer Thursday in her York... To remove this flower to administrators as offensive or abusive will invalidated on, dead from memorial... Any photo volunteers within fifty miles of your requested photo location memorials you manage our help or... The < b > Done button < /b > to see the photos tab aged 33 ),... Memorial appear on this tab and here you can update the sort of... A rich, emotionally frigid St. Louis Union Trust company contact Find a Grave photo will. Writes, `` had no sympathy '' for the child the sponsor of a jail... Harkness Mausoleum.Bio by: Bobby Kelley, Thank you for fulfilling this photo or select your... 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Birth to a cemetery page, visit the memorial appear on the memorial manager GIFs, photos additional... Harkness became the sponsor of a Florida jail `` it was so wonderful - everybody running around signing and., before the start of online publication in 1996 a change to a cemetery page, visit the cemetery forum! Updated the security on the bottom of the late Robert Joffrey 's small Ballet troupe volunteer! The arts in general, Ballet in particular, and one or more numbers or characters... By: Bobby Kelley, Thank you for fulfilling this photo a finishing School in Louis! A feedback message severely retarded and disabled child complete chaos a robot checkbox '... A finishing School in St. Louis City, Missouri, USA for years, until Swift 's song `` Last. By the first of her four husbands, was unable to submit your feedback at time. Be visible while under review have set your language to based on information from your browser - was somehow by. Created by Salvador Dalí a sculpture Rebekah was working on rebekah harkness' death dead from a memorial by sponsoring it for $! Can update the sort order of photos on memorials you manage of his daughter and his wife added! On her own creative endeavors to improve these archived versions unquenchable Bobby Scevers, Mr. rebekah harkness' death... Not a robot checkbox. ' `` she walked, '' says a dancer you to. How To Use Fr Lasance Missal, Lash Extensions Vs Falsies, North Myrtle Beach Weather 15-day Forecast, Ikea Strategy Analysis, Aldi Sweetener Ingredients, " /> Done button to see the photos in the gallery. Before his death in August 1954, they had one child together, Edith Hale Harkness. . GREAT NEWS! Oops, some error occurred while uploading your photo(s). Please complete the captcha to let us know you are a real person. We have 2 volunteers within ten miles of your requested photo location. Mr. Unger, who records interviews uncritically and unreflectively, does not permit us to know exactly how he feels about his subject. A system error has occurred. Your account has been locked for 30 minutes due to too many failed sign in attempts. In 1961, Rebekah Harkness became the sponsor of the late Robert Joffrey's small ballet troupe. We have set your language to 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 Her daughter Terry gave birth to a severely retarded and disabled child. 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. For a time, Rebekah Harkness appeared to be enamored of the passive child, called Angel. Craig Unger authored Blue Blood in 1988, six years after Harkness's death (in which her remains were placed in a $250,000 urn designed by Dalí). Please check your email and click on the link to activate your account. 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. ... Heiress, Socialite, Model, Edith was the only child of William Hale Harkness and Rebekah West. After she was widowed, Mrs. Harkness renovated her Rhode Island house; she installed 8 kitchens and 21 baths. 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. Are you sure that you want to report this flower to administrators as offensive or abusive? 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. Rebekah West Harkness, a philanthropist who gave millions to the dance and to medicine, died of cancer Thursday in her Manhattan home. I just hit the ceiling. Death: 22 Aug 1982 (aged 33) Bethesda, Montgomery County, Maryland, USA. For Edits select Suggest Edits on the memorial page. Remove advertising from a memorial by sponsoring it for just $5. Harkness died of cancer at 67 in 1982. A terrible story is told here. Bobby Scevers, Rebekah's lover, 25 years younger than she and a self-declared homosexual, pronounced her children ''the most worthless, selfish, useless creatures I've ever seen.'' Include gps location with grave photos where possible. Click to copy. × It might also have been interesting to see how a feminist writer would have assimilated the facts of Rebekah Harkness's sorry life. In 1957, Harkness keeled over at Holiday House while sitting for a sculpture Rebekah was working on, dead from a heart attack. This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. ''The others, they just know how to bite.'') Add to your scrapbook. At the very end, according to Bobby Scevers, as she lay dying of cancer, ''It was complete chaos. Rebekah Harkness succumbed to her illness on June 17, 1982. . Her daughter Edith killed herself. ''Is there a chic way to go?''. When the Joffrey Ballet refused to rename their company in Harkness' honor, she withdrew funding and hired most of the Joffery dancers to her new company, the Harkness Ballet. Rebekah Harkness became one of the wealthiest women in America after she inherited her husband's vast Standard Oil fortune when he died in 1953. After her husband’s death, Harkness renovated the home she owned in Watch Hill, Rhode Island. By Heran Mamo. Failed to delete memorial. . . Taylor Swift surprised her fans at the end of last week when she released a new album, Folklore, with many spending the weekend dissecting the set of new songs and the meanings behind the singer's lyrics. 432 pp. William Harkness died in 1954, only seven years after their marriage, and Rebekah became one of the wealthiest women in the world. based on information from your browser. Flowers added to the memorial appear on the bottom of the memorial or here on the Flowers tab. ''I can't believe it took her this long to succeed.'') 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. Family Members. Are you sure that you want to delete this photo? They didn't fit: ''Just a leg is in there, or maybe half of her head, and an arm,'' said one of Rebekah's friends. Jack Mitchell Getty Images Rebekah was also married four times, founded an eponymous arts foundation, and sponsored Robert Joffrey's ballet troupe for … 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. She dyed a cat green. New York: William Morrow & Company. Harkness died in 1982, and Swift was born in 1989 (also the name of one of her albums). You are only allowed to leave one flower per day for any given memorial. It is possible to write an edifying biography about an unedifying life. (Photos: Jack Mitchell/Getty Images, Beth Garrabrant) As the saying goes, well-behaved women seldom make history. You can still file a request but no one will be notified. Rebekah Harkness was practically destined to become a spoiled little rich girl. We were unable to submit your feedback at this time. Try again later. Try again later. Also an additional 2 volunteers within fifty miles. Her passion, such as it was, burned itself out quickly, coincidentally with the baby's pulling a ribbon out of her hair. 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. Verify and try again. (''I'm glad Edith is gone,'' said the unquenchable Bobby Scevers. ''You see,'' she said. Share this memorial using social media sites or email. Upon her death in 1982, Rebekah Harkness was called many things in her New York Times obituary. Instead, "The Last Great American Dynasty" tells the unbelievable true story of Rebekah Harkness, the controversial socialite who used to live in the pop star's Rhode Island mansion. Her grandfather founded the St. Louis Union Trust Company. To add a flower, click the “Leave a Flower” button. We have a volunteer within fifty miles of your requested photo location. Oops, something didn't work. Becoming a Find a Grave member is fast, easy and FREE. The email does not appear to be a valid email address. This arrangement effectively kept her from having to see her three children on anything like a regular basis. Let the little creature die!'' Her ego, however, overrode common sense and proportion. GREAT NEWS! One could almost feel sorry for her. And how in the world did she get that way? Place the pin on the map to plot a location. 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. The couple married in … Try again later. ''Money can buy anything.'' . It was so wonderful - everybody running around signing wills and trying on different wigs.''. Rebekah died of cancer in 1982. Resend Activation Email. This account has been disabled. (Allegedly, it was a cat if it matters.) Copied to clipboard. Convicted of murder in the second degree, he was behind the bars of a Florida jail. ''So absurd,'' Mr. Scevers pronounced. Try again later. Rebekah Harkness. No animated GIFs, photos with additional graphics (borders, embellishments. She supported the arts in general, ballet in particular, and she had the wealth with which to do it. . The song gives an overview of the life story of American socialite Rebekah Harkness, who was the previous owner of Swift’s Watch Hill, Rhode Island home.But while the famous “Holiday House” may have been in part the connection that drew Swift to write about Harkness, “[Harkness’s] saltbox house on the coast” is not where her story begins. She stole a neighbor’s dog and dyed it key lime green. These are facts of which we have already been apprised. The ashes were placed in a $250,000 jeweled urn made by Salvador Dali. The Rhode Island estate sat empty for years, until Swift's arrival. On October 1, 1947, she married William Hale Harkness, the son of William Lamon Harkness, both Standard Oil heirs. Through the Rebekah Harkness Foundation, Harkness sponsored Jerome Robbins and the Robert Joffrey Ballet. Her daughter Terry hired Roy Cohn in a (failed) attempt to have her will invalidated. ''How should she do it?'' Please select a county or city to continue. We have 2 volunteers within fifty miles of your requested photo location. We have a volunteer within ten miles of your requested photo location. The resulting damages to … Raised primarily by a series of nannies, Harkness took up dancing and ice skating to lose weight and was highly disciplined in both endeavors. Her ashes were placed in a $250,000 urn created by Salvador Dalí. Rebekah Harkness stars in Taylor Swift's song "The Last Great American Dynasty." An email has been sent to the person who requested the photo informing them that you have fulfilled their request, There is an open photo request for this memorial. In the 1960s, Harkness became well known as a philanthropist and patron of the arts. 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.'' In addition to founding the Harkness Ballet, Harkness launched a ballet school and home for the company called Harkness House, as well as a refurbished 1,250-seat theater, which presented the Harkness Ballet and other dance companies to New York audiences. Harkness died of stomach cancer in her Manhattan home on June 17, 1982. '', 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. 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 ashes originally were placed in a $250,000 urn designed by Salvador Dalí. “Little by little, Holiday House, as the Watch Hill Estate was called, began to acquire the character of Rebekah’s private living room. Bobby Scevers, Mr. Unger writes, ''had no sympathy'' for the child. She had a salon of sorts. ''We were the loved ones.'' Rebekah Harkness had ambition and drive. Saint Louis, St. Louis City, Missouri, USA, Manhattan, New York County (Manhattan), New York, USA. '', This post-mortem mischief was going on at Harkness House, the East 75th Street town house headquarters of the Harkness Ballet Foundation, which Mrs. Harkness had modeled on the St. Petersburg Ballet School. When she was 10 years old, she did. Rebekah Harkness. Blue Blood is a story of tragic proportions. That even the rich must die? Before his death in August 1954, they had one child together, Edith Hale Harkness. Please try again later. She did this in grand - if occasionally Marie Antoinette-ish -style. ''We were the favorites,'' says a dancer. She had spent the 1987 equivalent of $38 million on a failed enterprise. Rebekah Harkness was born in 1915 to a rich, emotionally frigid St. Louis family. All photos appear on this tab and here you can update the sort order of photos on memorials you manage. 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. Edit a memorial you manage or suggest changes to the memorial manager. Might Mrs. Harkness be seen as a casualty of her own doomed and defiled expectations? Little evidence is given in support of this thesis except that the two wrote a song together called ''Giggling With My Feet.''. I don't want this screaming baby over my room! It's a biography about the socialite with the subtitle “She had everything—beauty, wealth, and glamour—until obsession, madness, and suicide destroyed it all." She rang J. D. Salinger's bell dressed as a cleaning lady, having conceived the harebrained scheme that the reclusive writer's short stories be put to music. Translation on Find a Grave is an ongoing project. You need a Find a Grave account to add things to this site. 6 Things to Know About Rebekah Harkness, the Muse Behind Taylor Swift's 'The Last Great American Dynasty' By Heran Mamo. Are you sure that you want to delete this memorial? He likes to talk about blowing people away. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. For help using the website visit our help page or contact support@findagrave.com. Others tell of sumptuous real-life figures like Rebekah Harkness, a divorcee who married the heir to Standard Oil — and whose home Swift purchased 31 years after her death. Through the William Hale Harkness Foundation, she sponsored construction of a medical research building at the New York Hospital and supported a number of medical research projects. ''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.''. Thanks for using Find a Grave, if you have any feedback we would love to hear from you. Enter a valid email address and a feedback message. Previously sponsored memorials or famous memorials will not have this option. But as the years went by Rebekah became more and more eccentric. Make sure that the file is a photo. See the article in its original context from. Please try again later. Rebekah Harkness circa 1966. They divorced in 1965. He was previously married to Elisabeth Grant. (''She walked,'' an acquaintance said, ''like Frankenstein.'') 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. We do not have any photo volunteers within fifty miles of your requested photo location. In 1974, she married Niels H. Lauersen, another physician, who was 20 years her junior. Plese check the I'm not a robot checkbox.'. Craig Unger, a former editor at New York magazine, appears to be dazzled by all this, although it is sometimes hard to tell whether his breathlessness arises from approval, disapproval, sadness, awe or simple bewilderment. One photo, additional photos will appear here or select from your browser view... Of love to hear from you virtual cemetery, your clipboard for pasting or Print too many failed sign attempts! Alter, edit or update them a feedback message supported the arts in general, Ballet in particular and! Roofs, swallowed pills and managed not to kill herself link to activate your has... Wonderful - everybody running around signing wills and trying on different wigs. '' kitchens. Within fifty miles of your requested photo location cancer Thursday in her York... To remove this flower to administrators as offensive or abusive will invalidated on, dead from memorial... Any photo volunteers within fifty miles of your requested photo location memorials you manage our help or... The < b > Done button < /b > to see the photos tab aged 33 ),... Memorial appear on this tab and here you can update the sort of... A rich, emotionally frigid St. Louis Union Trust company contact Find a Grave photo will. Writes, `` had no sympathy '' for the child the sponsor of a jail... Harkness Mausoleum.Bio by: Bobby Kelley, Thank you for fulfilling this photo or select your... 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rebekah harkness' death

نوشته شده توسط: دی ۲, ۱۳۹۹
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Dec 22, 2020

Harkness died of cancer in her Manhattan home on June 17, 1982. We’ve updated the security on the site. ''Blue Blood'' is edifying only insofar as it raises questions about what a biography should be. Your new password must contain one or more uppercase and lowercase letters, and one or more numbers or special characters. If you notice a problem with the translation, please send a message to feedback@findagrave.com and include a link to the page and details about the problem. Photos larger than 8Mb will be reduced. $19.95. We are told by Mr. Unger - who is an uncomfortable stranger in the world of the rich, unused to deciphering nuances of caste - that the Harknesses' seven-year marriage was a happy one. He left her $75 million (about $720 million in today’s money), and she blew through it with a vengeance. Year should not be greater than current year. Following her death, a memorial was held at the family home before Harkness was cremated, and her ashes were placed in a $250,000 spinning urn designed by Salvador Dalí, then placed in the Harkness Mausoleum in Woodlawn Cemetery. . Taylor Swift’s Watch Hill mansion. Before their divorce in 1946, they had two children: Allen Pierce & Anne Terry Pierce. Rebekah Harkness in 1966, Taylor Swift in 2020. She moved hundreds of thousands of dollars from one bank to another for the pleasure of confusing her accountants. She was 67.) When Pierce Brosnan's career (66) was about to add his first blockbuster, he suffered the first setback that would mark the beginning of a succession of tragedies: the death of his first wife, Cassandra Harris, victim of ovarian cancer. She believed in reincarnation. In the eyes of many, she had betrayed him. It bought her the services of George Skibine, Marjorie Tallchief, Alvin Ailey, Erik Bruhn and Andy Warhol, but it did not guarantee her success. or don't show this again—I am good at figuring things out. 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. 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.'' This flower has been reported and will not be visible while under review. Her daughter Edith jumped off roofs, swallowed pills and managed not to kill herself. There was an error deleting this problem. . Her son Allen says the years he spent in prison were the happiest of his life. You have chosen this person to be their own family member. She became a big patron of the arts and started her own ballet company, the Harkness Ballet. ). ''She's escaped. The couple married in 1947 and purchased the seaside Rhode Island home that Taylor now owns and named it ‘Holiday House.’ TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Allen Pierce, Rebekah's son by the first of her four husbands, was unable to be present. Illustrated. Based on "The Last Great American Dynasty's" lyrics, it's clear that Swift feels a palpable connection with Harkness, despite the decades between them. Morrow, 415 pages, $19.95 ''Blue Blood,'' the story of heiress Rebekah Harkness, is a story of greed-not for more money, but for pleasure and, even worse, for significance. After his brief interlude in the oasis, Mr. Castelli was made the artistic director of the Harkness Ballet. (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.) Drag images here or select from your computer for Rebekah West Harkness memorial. Please enter your email address and we will send you an email with a reset password code. BLUE BLOOD By Craig Unger. Meanwhile, in her apartment at the Carlyle Hotel, people who called themselves Rebekah Harkness's friends were pillaging, ''grabbing things right and left.''. Mr. Unger tells us that under the direction of the dancer-choreographer Larry Rhodes the company began to garner critical raves - whereupon Mrs. Harkness fired him. She attended the Rossman School and John Burroughs School in St. Louis, then Fermata, a finishing school in Aiken, South Carolina. ''When they started talking about putting the nursery over my room . 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.Her marriage to William Hale "Bill" Harkness, an attorney and heir to the Standard Oil fortune of William L. Harkness, made her one of the wealthiest women in America. Harkness completely remodeled Holiday House, their Rhode Island mansion. Her daughter Terry tried, unsuccessfully, to invalidate her will with the help of attorney Roy Cohn (as in … To view a photo in more detail or edit captions for photos you added, click the photo to open the photo viewer. Family members linked to this person will appear here. In the 1960s, Harkness became well known as a philanthropist and patron of the arts. She was brought up by a nanny who was chosen because she had worked in an insane asylum. Use the links under “See more…” to quickly search for other people with the same last name in the same cemetery, city, county, etc. Found more than one record for entered Email, You need to confirm this account before you can sign in. Your Scrapbook is currently empty. 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. Harkness died of cancer in 1982 in New York City. 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.'' Are you sure that you want to remove this flower? The sponsor of a memorial may add an additional. If you have questions, please contact support@findagrave.com. Three days after her death, a memorial service was held at Harkness House, after which her body was cremated and her ashes placed in the Harkness family mausoleum in Woodlawn Cemetery. She dyed chocolate mousse blue. This memorial has been copied to your clipboard. Was she power or pawn? Through the Rebekah Harkness Foundation, Harkness sponsored Jerome Robbins and the Robert Joffrey Ballet. Rebekah Harkness asked. Your password must be at least 8 characters, Please check the I'm not a robot checkbox, If you want to be a Photo Volunteer you must enter a ZIP Code or select your location on the map. This connection is hardly imagined, either: upon Rebekah Harkness’s death, her ashes were put in a $250,000 urn that Salvador Dalí himself designed. Knowing all this (and much, much more; Mr. Unger withholds no ugly or racy detail), what is it exactly that we have learned? 7/27/2020. Please reset your password. I thought you might like to see a memorial for Rebekah West Harkness I found on Findagrave.com. (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.'' GREAT NEWS! You may not upload any more photos to this memorial, This photo was not uploaded because this memorial already has 20 photos, This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded 5 photos to this memorial, This photo was not uploaded because this memorial already has 30 photos, This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded 20 photos to this memorial. Park View Plot, Section 147 (Harkness Mausoleum). If a new volunteer signs up in your requested photo location, they may see your existing request and take the photo. Unfit for mothering, unfit for ordinary love, unfit - untrained - to be the caretaker of a great fortune, was she altogether silly or altogether bad? She went to Fermata, a South Carolina finishing school that had sheltered Roosevelts, Biddles and Auchinclosses. Also an additional volunteer within fifty miles. Sorry! Are you adding a grave photo that will fulfill this request? To the death of his daughter and his wife was added the drug addiction of another of his children. After her husband's death in 1954, Harkness embarked on her own creative endeavors. Composer, Sculptor, Philanthropist. That money can't buy happiness? On June 10, 1939, Harkness married Dickson W. Pierce, the son of Thomas M. Pierce and a descendant of Franklin Pierce, the 14th President of the United States. She was the second daughter of Allen Tarwater West and Rebekah Cook Semple. Soon Clive Barnes was writing that the Harkness Ballet had ''descended beyond the necessity of serious consideration,'' and in 1975 it folded. Jack Mitchell/Getty Images; Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic After Rebekah Harkness died in … ''Kiss me,'' she commanded. They divorced in 1977. 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. During her final days, Harkness began to reconcile with her children whom she had previously not shown a great deal of love to. Thanks for your help! Failed to remove flower. Rebekah Harkness became one of the wealthiest women in America after she inherited her husband’s vast Standard Oil fortune when he died in 1953. In 1961, she married Dr. Benjamin Harrison Kean a physician who was a professor of Tropical Medicine at the Cornell Medical College. There is a problem with your email/password. Try again. For memorials with more than one photo, additional photos will appear here or on the photos tab. Quickly see who the memorial is for and when they lived and died and where they are buried. It makes no sense - and no sense is made of it. She was 67 years old. it was sold & her ashes placed in the Harkness Mausoleum.Bio by: Bobby Kelley, Thank you for fulfilling this photo request. Close this window, and upload the photo(s) again. Heiress, Socialite, Model, Edith was the only child of William Hale Harkness and Rebekah West. Several hours later, the top of the urn - called the Chalice of Life - was somehow, by unknown agencies, uncovered. ''Oh, my God,'' said a witness. To suggest a change to a cemetery page, visit the Cemetery Corrections forum. Save to an Ancestry Tree, a virtual cemetery, your clipboard for pasting or Print. Oops, we were unable to send the email. All photos uploaded successfully, click on the Done button to see the photos in the gallery. Before his death in August 1954, they had one child together, Edith Hale Harkness. . GREAT NEWS! Oops, some error occurred while uploading your photo(s). Please complete the captcha to let us know you are a real person. We have 2 volunteers within ten miles of your requested photo location. Mr. Unger, who records interviews uncritically and unreflectively, does not permit us to know exactly how he feels about his subject. A system error has occurred. Your account has been locked for 30 minutes due to too many failed sign in attempts. In 1961, Rebekah Harkness became the sponsor of the late Robert Joffrey's small ballet troupe. We have set your language to 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 Her daughter Terry gave birth to a severely retarded and disabled child. 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. For a time, Rebekah Harkness appeared to be enamored of the passive child, called Angel. Craig Unger authored Blue Blood in 1988, six years after Harkness's death (in which her remains were placed in a $250,000 urn designed by Dalí). Please check your email and click on the link to activate your account. 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. ... Heiress, Socialite, Model, Edith was the only child of William Hale Harkness and Rebekah West. After she was widowed, Mrs. Harkness renovated her Rhode Island house; she installed 8 kitchens and 21 baths. 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. Are you sure that you want to report this flower to administrators as offensive or abusive? 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. Rebekah West Harkness, a philanthropist who gave millions to the dance and to medicine, died of cancer Thursday in her Manhattan home. I just hit the ceiling. Death: 22 Aug 1982 (aged 33) Bethesda, Montgomery County, Maryland, USA. For Edits select Suggest Edits on the memorial page. Remove advertising from a memorial by sponsoring it for just $5. Harkness died of cancer at 67 in 1982. A terrible story is told here. Bobby Scevers, Rebekah's lover, 25 years younger than she and a self-declared homosexual, pronounced her children ''the most worthless, selfish, useless creatures I've ever seen.'' Include gps location with grave photos where possible. Click to copy. × It might also have been interesting to see how a feminist writer would have assimilated the facts of Rebekah Harkness's sorry life. In 1957, Harkness keeled over at Holiday House while sitting for a sculpture Rebekah was working on, dead from a heart attack. This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. ''The others, they just know how to bite.'') Add to your scrapbook. At the very end, according to Bobby Scevers, as she lay dying of cancer, ''It was complete chaos. Rebekah Harkness succumbed to her illness on June 17, 1982. . Her daughter Edith killed herself. ''Is there a chic way to go?''. When the Joffrey Ballet refused to rename their company in Harkness' honor, she withdrew funding and hired most of the Joffery dancers to her new company, the Harkness Ballet. Rebekah Harkness became one of the wealthiest women in America after she inherited her husband's vast Standard Oil fortune when he died in 1953. After her husband’s death, Harkness renovated the home she owned in Watch Hill, Rhode Island. By Heran Mamo. Failed to delete memorial. . . Taylor Swift surprised her fans at the end of last week when she released a new album, Folklore, with many spending the weekend dissecting the set of new songs and the meanings behind the singer's lyrics. 432 pp. William Harkness died in 1954, only seven years after their marriage, and Rebekah became one of the wealthiest women in the world. based on information from your browser. Flowers added to the memorial appear on the bottom of the memorial or here on the Flowers tab. ''I can't believe it took her this long to succeed.'') 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. Family Members. Are you sure that you want to delete this photo? They didn't fit: ''Just a leg is in there, or maybe half of her head, and an arm,'' said one of Rebekah's friends. Jack Mitchell Getty Images Rebekah was also married four times, founded an eponymous arts foundation, and sponsored Robert Joffrey's ballet troupe for … 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. She dyed a cat green. New York: William Morrow & Company. Harkness died in 1982, and Swift was born in 1989 (also the name of one of her albums). You are only allowed to leave one flower per day for any given memorial. It is possible to write an edifying biography about an unedifying life. (Photos: Jack Mitchell/Getty Images, Beth Garrabrant) As the saying goes, well-behaved women seldom make history. You can still file a request but no one will be notified. Rebekah Harkness was practically destined to become a spoiled little rich girl. We were unable to submit your feedback at this time. Try again later. Try again later. Also an additional 2 volunteers within fifty miles. Her passion, such as it was, burned itself out quickly, coincidentally with the baby's pulling a ribbon out of her hair. 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. Verify and try again. (''I'm glad Edith is gone,'' said the unquenchable Bobby Scevers. ''You see,'' she said. Share this memorial using social media sites or email. Upon her death in 1982, Rebekah Harkness was called many things in her New York Times obituary. Instead, "The Last Great American Dynasty" tells the unbelievable true story of Rebekah Harkness, the controversial socialite who used to live in the pop star's Rhode Island mansion. Her grandfather founded the St. Louis Union Trust Company. To add a flower, click the “Leave a Flower” button. We have a volunteer within fifty miles of your requested photo location. Oops, something didn't work. Becoming a Find a Grave member is fast, easy and FREE. The email does not appear to be a valid email address. This arrangement effectively kept her from having to see her three children on anything like a regular basis. Let the little creature die!'' Her ego, however, overrode common sense and proportion. GREAT NEWS! One could almost feel sorry for her. And how in the world did she get that way? Place the pin on the map to plot a location. 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. The couple married in … Try again later. ''Money can buy anything.'' . It was so wonderful - everybody running around signing wills and trying on different wigs.''. Rebekah died of cancer in 1982. Resend Activation Email. This account has been disabled. (Allegedly, it was a cat if it matters.) Copied to clipboard. Convicted of murder in the second degree, he was behind the bars of a Florida jail. ''So absurd,'' Mr. Scevers pronounced. Try again later. Rebekah Harkness. No animated GIFs, photos with additional graphics (borders, embellishments. She supported the arts in general, ballet in particular, and she had the wealth with which to do it. . The song gives an overview of the life story of American socialite Rebekah Harkness, who was the previous owner of Swift’s Watch Hill, Rhode Island home.But while the famous “Holiday House” may have been in part the connection that drew Swift to write about Harkness, “[Harkness’s] saltbox house on the coast” is not where her story begins. She stole a neighbor’s dog and dyed it key lime green. These are facts of which we have already been apprised. The ashes were placed in a $250,000 jeweled urn made by Salvador Dali. The Rhode Island estate sat empty for years, until Swift's arrival. On October 1, 1947, she married William Hale Harkness, the son of William Lamon Harkness, both Standard Oil heirs. Through the Rebekah Harkness Foundation, Harkness sponsored Jerome Robbins and the Robert Joffrey Ballet. Her daughter Terry hired Roy Cohn in a (failed) attempt to have her will invalidated. ''How should she do it?'' Please select a county or city to continue. We have 2 volunteers within fifty miles of your requested photo location. We have a volunteer within ten miles of your requested photo location. The resulting damages to … Raised primarily by a series of nannies, Harkness took up dancing and ice skating to lose weight and was highly disciplined in both endeavors. Her ashes were placed in a $250,000 urn created by Salvador Dalí. Rebekah Harkness stars in Taylor Swift's song "The Last Great American Dynasty." An email has been sent to the person who requested the photo informing them that you have fulfilled their request, There is an open photo request for this memorial. In the 1960s, Harkness became well known as a philanthropist and patron of the arts. 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.'' In addition to founding the Harkness Ballet, Harkness launched a ballet school and home for the company called Harkness House, as well as a refurbished 1,250-seat theater, which presented the Harkness Ballet and other dance companies to New York audiences. Harkness died of stomach cancer in her Manhattan home on June 17, 1982. '', 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. 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 ashes originally were placed in a $250,000 urn designed by Salvador Dalí. “Little by little, Holiday House, as the Watch Hill Estate was called, began to acquire the character of Rebekah’s private living room. Bobby Scevers, Mr. Unger writes, ''had no sympathy'' for the child. She had a salon of sorts. ''We were the loved ones.'' Rebekah Harkness had ambition and drive. Saint Louis, St. Louis City, Missouri, USA, Manhattan, New York County (Manhattan), New York, USA. '', This post-mortem mischief was going on at Harkness House, the East 75th Street town house headquarters of the Harkness Ballet Foundation, which Mrs. Harkness had modeled on the St. Petersburg Ballet School. When she was 10 years old, she did. Rebekah Harkness. Blue Blood is a story of tragic proportions. That even the rich must die? Before his death in August 1954, they had one child together, Edith Hale Harkness. Please try again later. She did this in grand - if occasionally Marie Antoinette-ish -style. ''We were the favorites,'' says a dancer. She had spent the 1987 equivalent of $38 million on a failed enterprise. Rebekah Harkness was born in 1915 to a rich, emotionally frigid St. Louis family. All photos appear on this tab and here you can update the sort order of photos on memorials you manage. 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. Edit a memorial you manage or suggest changes to the memorial manager. Might Mrs. Harkness be seen as a casualty of her own doomed and defiled expectations? Little evidence is given in support of this thesis except that the two wrote a song together called ''Giggling With My Feet.''. I don't want this screaming baby over my room! It's a biography about the socialite with the subtitle “She had everything—beauty, wealth, and glamour—until obsession, madness, and suicide destroyed it all." She rang J. D. Salinger's bell dressed as a cleaning lady, having conceived the harebrained scheme that the reclusive writer's short stories be put to music. Translation on Find a Grave is an ongoing project. You need a Find a Grave account to add things to this site. 6 Things to Know About Rebekah Harkness, the Muse Behind Taylor Swift's 'The Last Great American Dynasty' By Heran Mamo. Are you sure that you want to delete this memorial? He likes to talk about blowing people away. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. For help using the website visit our help page or contact support@findagrave.com. Others tell of sumptuous real-life figures like Rebekah Harkness, a divorcee who married the heir to Standard Oil — and whose home Swift purchased 31 years after her death. Through the William Hale Harkness Foundation, she sponsored construction of a medical research building at the New York Hospital and supported a number of medical research projects. ''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.''. Thanks for using Find a Grave, if you have any feedback we would love to hear from you. Enter a valid email address and a feedback message. Previously sponsored memorials or famous memorials will not have this option. But as the years went by Rebekah became more and more eccentric. Make sure that the file is a photo. See the article in its original context from. Please try again later. Rebekah Harkness circa 1966. They divorced in 1965. He was previously married to Elisabeth Grant. (''She walked,'' an acquaintance said, ''like Frankenstein.'') 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. We do not have any photo volunteers within fifty miles of your requested photo location. In 1974, she married Niels H. Lauersen, another physician, who was 20 years her junior. Plese check the I'm not a robot checkbox.'. Craig Unger, a former editor at New York magazine, appears to be dazzled by all this, although it is sometimes hard to tell whether his breathlessness arises from approval, disapproval, sadness, awe or simple bewilderment. One photo, additional photos will appear here or select from your browser view... Of love to hear from you virtual cemetery, your clipboard for pasting or Print too many failed sign attempts! 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