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        <title><![CDATA[Who is Rebekah Harkness, subject of Taylor Swift’s ‘Last Great American Dynasty’?]]></title>
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            <media:title type="html">Who is Rebekah Harkness, subject of Taylor Swift’s ‘Last Great American Dynasty’?</media:title>
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        <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>While stuck at home in quarantine, Taylor Swift looked to a fitting source of inspiration for <strong>her new album &#8220;Folklore&#8221;</strong>: her house itself.</p><p>One of her houses, anyway. Back in 2013, the 30-year-old singer-songwriter splashed out a reported $17 million for a stately oceanside mansion in Watch Hill, Rhode Island. Now, her home&#8217;s previous owner, the infamous late socialite Rebekah Harkness, has an entire Swift track in her honor.</p><p>The subject of &#8220;Folklore&#8221; song &#8220;The Last Great American Dynasty,&#8221; Harkness — née Rebekah Semple West — was born in 1915 to &#8220;a rich, emotionally frigid St. Louis family,&#8221; <strong>according to the New York Times</strong>, and in 1947 married William Hale Harkness, her second husband and heir to the Standard Oil fortune.</p><p>While the couple were only married for seven years — &#8220;The wedding was charming, if a little gauche / There&#8217;s only so far new money goes,&#8221; Swift sings — it was during that time that they purchased their so-called &#8220;Holiday House,&#8221; where the pop star now resides.</p><p>Even after her husband&#8217;s death in 1954 (&#8220;It must have been her fault his heart gave out,&#8221; Swift muses), Harkness threw wild parties that clearly ruffled her neighbors&#8217; feathers, with guests her son Allen Pierce once described as &#8220;all the fairies flying off the floor, the blackmailing lawyers, the weirdos, the people in the trances,&#8221; according to the Times. On any given evening, J.D. Salinger or Andy Warhol might stop by.</p><figure id="attachment_5331409"  class="wp-caption alignnone aligncenter"><strong><noscript><img data- data-src="/uploads/2020/07/taylor-swift-rhode-island-house.jpg" class="lazyload" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" /><noscript><img  data-src="/uploads/2020/07/taylor-swift-rhode-island-house.jpg" /></noscript></noscript><img class="lazyload" src='data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20210%20140%22%3E%3C/svg%3E' data- data-src="/uploads/2020/07/taylor-swift-rhode-island-house.jpg" /></strong><figcaption class="wp-caption-text"><span>Taylor Swift&#8217;s home in Watch Hill, Rhode Island, which was previously owned by Rebekah Harkness.</span><span class="credit">Carol Ann Mossa/Shutterstock</span></figcaption></figure><p>As Swift mentions, Harkness was also friendly with Salvador Dalí; after she died of cancer in 1982 at the age of 67, she even requested her ashes be kept in a $250,000 custom urn of the artist&#8217;s design. Unfortunately, according to the Times, &#8220;just a leg &#8230; or maybe half of her head, and an arm&#8221; actually fit in the jeweled vessel, prompting Harkness&#8217; daughter to tote the remaining ashes home in a Gristedes shopping bag.</p><p>As Swift recounts in her song, Harkness was a notorious (if well-intentioned) spendthrift; a patron of the arts, she founded her own Harkness Ballet in the 1960s and poured many millions into the passion project, but it folded in 1975.</p><figure id="attachment_5331410"  class="wp-caption alignright"><strong><noscript><img data- data-src="/uploads/2020/07/rebekah-harness-ballet.jpg" class="lazyload" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" /><noscript><img  data-src="/uploads/2020/07/rebekah-harness-ballet.jpg" /></noscript></noscript><img class="lazyload" src='data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20210%20140%22%3E%3C/svg%3E' data- data-src="/uploads/2020/07/rebekah-harness-ballet.jpg" /></strong><figcaption class="wp-caption-text"><span>Rebekah Harkness and her Harkness Ballet in 1966.</span><span class="credit">Getty Images</span></figcaption></figure><p>Swift also mentions the debutante&#8217;s &#8220;bitch pack,&#8221; referring to her real-life group of prankster pals from school who enjoyed spiking punch bowls with mineral oil, filling swimming pools with Dom Perignon and swearing aloud on ocean liners.</p><p>In her lyrics, the star makes it clear how Harkness was perceived in the upper-crust coastal community. &#8220;There goes the maddest woman this town has ever seen / She had a marvelous time ruining everything,&#8221; Swift sings.</p><p>The Grammy winner herself has caused a stir among Watch Hill locals since snapping up Harkness&#8217; abode, turning the town into a tourist and paparazzi hotspot, hosting star-studded Fourth of July parties for several years in a row and even inspiring one neighbor to propose a &#8220;Taylor Swift&#8221; tax on second homes valued at over $1 million. (It was eventually withdrawn.)</p><p>By the end of &#8220;The Last Great American Dynasty,&#8221; Swift has woven her own story together with Harkness&#8217;, with their shared reputation for &#8220;madness&#8221; bridging the years between the two.</p><p>&#8220;Who knows, if I never showed up what could&#8217;ve happened?&#8221; she asks, shifting the pronouns of the earlier chorus. &#8220;There goes the loudest woman this town has ever seen / I had a marvelous time ruining everything.&#8221;</p><p>As for the line about Harkness once dyeing a neighbor&#8217;s dog &#8220;key lime green?&#8221; That really happened — but according to the Times, it was actually a cat. No wonder Swift, a <strong>noted cat fancier</strong>, chose to tweak the tale.</p><figure id="attachment_5331413"  class="wp-caption alignnone aligncenter"><strong><noscript><img data- data-src="/uploads/2020/07/rebekah-harkness-2.jpg" class="lazyload" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" /><noscript><img  data-src="/uploads/2020/07/rebekah-harkness-2.jpg" /></noscript></noscript><img class="lazyload" src='data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20210%20140%22%3E%3C/svg%3E' data- data-src="/uploads/2020/07/rebekah-harkness-2.jpg" /></strong><figcaption class="wp-caption-text"><span>Rebekah Harkness in 1966.</span><span class="credit">Getty Images</span></figcaption></figure>]]></content:encoded>
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