Rebekah Harkness

Rebekah West Harkness (née Semple West; Her grandfather founded the St. Louis Union Trust Company.

Career In the 1960s, Harkness became well known as a philanthropist and patron of the arts. Through the Rebekah Harkness Foundation, Harkness sponsored Jerome Robbins and the Joffrey Ballet. When the Joffrey Ballet refused to rename their company in Harkness' honor, she withdrew funding and hired most of the Joffrey dancers to her new company, the Harkness Ballet. In addition to founding the Harkness Ballet, Harkness launched a ballet school and home for the company called Harkness House, as well as the refurbished 1,250-seat Colonial Theater, which presented the Harkness Ballet and other dance companies to New York audiences. 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.

Later in life, she studied with Nadia Boulanger at The American Conservatory, in Fontainebleau, France; at the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze in Geneva; and the Mannes College of Music in New York City. She also studied orchestration with Lee Hoiby.

In 1968, she received an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the Franklin Pierce College in Rindge, New Hampshire.

Public image and philanthropy Following the death in 1954 of her second husband, William Hale Harkness, she inherited his fortune. She soon became the owner of a vast number of properties, and indulged in many luxuries. Harkness' passions for dance and music followed her into adulthood. She used much of her inheritance to become a patron of the ballet, as well as to compose music. Her 1955 tone poem, Safari Suite, was performed at Carnegie Hall, and in 1957 she released an album titled Music With a Heartbeat.

A philanthropist, Harkness supported the Joffrey Ballet for years, as well as the Harkness Ballet Foundation and the William Hale Harkness Foundation. 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. Following the divorce, Harkness gained custody of both children. Allen shot and killed a man in a brawl and was charged with second-degree murder, the charge eventually being reduced to manslaughter, William Hale Harkness died in August 1954. Their daughter Edith married Kenneth Perry McKinnon in 1971. Over the course of her life Edith was in and out of mental institutions before eventually killing herself shortly after her mother's death.

In 1961, Harkness married Ben Kean (c. 1912–1993), a physician who was a professor of Tropical Medicine at the Cornell Medical College. They divorced in 1977.

Death Harkness died of stomach cancer in her Manhattan home on June 17, 1982 at the age of 67.

In popular culture Harkness' "Holiday House" in Watch Hill was acquired in 2013 by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. In 2020, Swift wrote the song "The Last Great American Dynasty" for her eighth studio album Folklore (2020), in which she tells Harkness' life story and draws parallels between Harkness’ highly publicized life and her own.

An American Ballet Story is a 2022 documentary film directed by Leslie Streit and sponsored by the International Documentary Association. It explores the Harkness' legacy and her company, Harkness Ballet. Streit interviewed former students and teachers of the school and gathered archival video footage of performances for the film.