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The Outrageous Life of Rebekah Harkness, Taylor Swift’s High-Society Muse

Upon her death in 1982, Rebekah Harkness was called many things in her New York Times obituary. A philanthropist. A patron of dance and medicine. An artist (a descriptor she bestowed upon herself). Now she has one more posthumous title: muse.

“Rebekah rode up on the afternoon train / It was sunny,” Taylor Swift croons in her new song “The Last Great American Dynasty.” In 3 minutes 51 seconds, Swift tells the story of Harkness’s legacy through lyrics. But why? Swift explains it briefly in a verse—Harkness once owned Holiday House, the singer’s current Watch Hill, Rhode Island, home. (Yes, the seaside mansion that was the setting for Taymerica.) However, the connection between the two women, despite being eras apart, may go beyond mere real estate.

Let’s start from the beginning. In 1915, Rebekah West was born in St. Louis to Mr. and Mrs. Allen Tarwater West. Her grandfather founded the St. Louis Union Trust Company, ensuring she grew up comfortably. She attended finishing school at the Fermata School for Girls in Aiken, South Carolina, whose other alums included Roosevelts and Auchinclosses. 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? Putting mineral oil in the punch at her sister’s debutante ball. (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.

Harkness had three husbands. She said she married her first, photographer Dickson Pierce, because she “had nothing else to do.” No surprise, that union ended in divorce.

She married her second husband, Standard Oil heir William Hale Harkness, in 1947. Their wedding took place at 730 Park Avenue, which was William’s apartment. In the first verse of “The Last Great American Dynasty,” Swift sings that the ceremony “was charming, if a little gauche / There’s only so far new money goes.”

It’s here where Rebekah catapulted into high society. Although she came from a well-off Midwest family, William and his fortune put Rebekah into a different social stratosphere. In December 1956, she even appeared in the pages of Vogue. Donning a black chiffon Mainbocher dress with a white silk back-tied apron, she flashed a wry smile at the camera. The caption read: “A young woman with a surprising range of interests, Mrs. Harkness is a sculptor, a musician of professional standing (she’s a member of ASCAP), a skier (she’ll 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? Babe Paley, one of Truman Capote’s swans.

Their Rhode Island estate, Holiday House, was the site of some raucous Gatsby-esque parties: Blue Blood recalls that Harkness once filled her pool with Dom Perignon (which, oddly, was not the only liberty she took with libations: it’s also said she put scotch in her fish tank).

After her husband passed away in 1954, Harkness poured more money into her Watch Hill compound, installing 8 kitchens and 21 baths. She even hosted a ballet workshop there for 20 dancers from the Robert Joffrey Company (now known as the Joffrey Ballet) in 1965.

Being a patron of the ballet was Rebekah’s passion. In her obituary, she’s credited with supporting the Joffrey and Jerome Robbins ballet companies. She even started a company of her own in 1964: the Harkness Ballet. But the result was disastrous. She poured money into Harkness House, a dance studio meant to mimic the grandeur of European ballet schools, outfitting it with a marble staircase, silk shades, and a crystal chandelier. (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 company’s disbanding in 1970. It’s estimated she spent the 2020 equivalent of $86 million on the endeavor.

When she died in 1982, Harkness had demanded her ashes be put in a $250,000 jeweled Salvador Dalí urn. The only problem was that the urn was too small. Reportedly, the rest of her remains were placed in a Gristedes bag.

“Picking up a pen was my way of escaping into fantasy, history, and memory,” Swift says of the inspiration behind her album, Folklore. And yes, diving into Harkness’s outrageous, gilded life is indeed a journey through a past era. Yet it’s also impossible to avoid drawing parallels between Swift and Harkness. Where Harkness had her Bitch Pack, Swift’s group of friends had a much-scrutinized squad. Harkness drew glares for her parties at Holiday House, as did Swift: Who could forget the frenzy over her celeb-studded Fourth of July bash? 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. At the end of the song, she suggests a certain satisfaction regardless of the answer: “There goes the loudest woman this town has ever seen / I had a marvelous time ruining everything.”

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