The Standard Oil heiress who built a dance empire and lost it all
In short: Rebekah Harkness was one of America's wealthiest women, a composer, and a legendary patron of the arts. Yet, behind the glamour of her 40-member ballet company and lavish New York lifestyle lay a life of profound personal tragedy, eccentricity, and a fortune dissolved by capricious behavior.
Born Rebekah Semple West in St. Louis in 1915, Harkness's early life was marked by discipline and rebellion. Raised by nannies under a tyrannical father, she transformed from a pudgy child into a striking woman through rigorous dance and ice skating. As a young debutante, she even co-founded the 'Bitch Pack,' a group of socialites known for subverting high-society events with pranks like lacing punchbowls with mineral oil. Her musical education was equally rigorous, involving studies with Nadia Boulanger in France and Lee Hoiby in New York. Even her childhood adventures were legendary; during a 1937 world cruise, her wild behavior led to an official request for her to leave the ship.
She gained vast riches by marrying lawyer and Standard Oil heir William Hale Harkness in 1947. Following his death in 1954, she became a formidable patron of the arts in the 1960s. She established the Harkness Ballet, the Harkness House school, and refurbished a 1,250-seat theater for New York audiences. Her philanthropy extended to medical research at New York Hospital through the William Hale Harkness Foundation. Her influence in the dance world was so significant that she famously hired dancers from the Joffrey Ballet after they refused to rename their company in her honor. She also released an album titled Music With a Heartbeat in 1957.
However, her legacy is deeply contested. While some saw a generous benefactor, biographer Craig Unger suggests her public image masked a self-destructive edge. By the time of her death in 1982, her dance empire had collapsed, her fortune was largely depleted, and her family life was marked by tragedy: her daughter Edith struggled with mental illness before committing suicide, and her son was involved in a fatal brawl. Even her eccentricities, such as allegedly cleaning her pool with champagne, became tabloid fodder. Her final resting place was even marked by her avant-garde tastes, as Salvador Dalí designed her funeral urn. Her life was a complex tapestry of high-society prestige and profound personal loss.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Harkness, Rebekah (1915–1982) | Encyclopedia.com
- Also: Rebekah Harkness
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