Written by Coco Barrett

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Taylor Swift’s eighth studio album Folklore explores many fictional plot lines, but the protagonist of the third track, “The Last Great American Dynasty”, is far from fictional. The song explores the life of heiress and socialite Rebekah Harkness, the previous owner of Swift’s mansion in Rhode Island. 

Born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1915, Rebekah Harkness was raised in a world of wealth and influence. Her father, Allen Tarwater West, had co-founded the investment banking firm G.H. Walker & Co. with George Herbert Walker, the grandfather of President George HW Bush and great-grandfather of George W Bush. As a young girl, Harkness attended various private and preparatory schools, developing friendships with influential figures such as future Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart. Harkness came into significant wealth through her second marriage to William Hale Harkness, the Standard Oil heir. Although she came from a wealthy family, she married considerably above her class, hence the Swift lyric ‘the town said, “How did a middle-class divorcée do it?”‘.

Harkness’ reputation for outrageous behaviour and extensive partying was considered to have brought great shame to this once revered family, hence the song’s title, “The Last Great American Dynasty.” In her early adult years in New York, she was part of a group of fellow socialite friends called the “Bitch Pack.” The group were known for their excessive drinking and scandalous behaviour at parties and social events, including dancing on tables and removing their clothing in front of fellow guests. Swift references the antics these women got up to in their later years, describing how Harkness “flew in all her Bitch Pack friends from the city” to attend lavish parties at her Rhode Island Mansion. Swift seemingly draws parallels between herself and Harkness here, as she has been known to host star-studded Fourth of July parties at the same mansion. Harkness’ parties were similarly star-studded, her friends including numerous artists, such as painter Salvador Dalí, who ended up designing her urn after she died. Swift also references this in the line “losin’ on card game bets with Dalí.”  

Some might say Harkness was a great philanthropist, and others might say she was a great spender of money. She withdrew sponsorship of the Joffrey Ballet after they refused to rename it the Harkness Ballet. In response, she created her own company, Harkness Ballet, and attempted to poach as many of the Joffrey dancers as she could, hence the Swift lyric “blew through the money on the boys and the ballet.” One estimate that emerged five years after her death was that Harkness spent $83 million on the ballet alone, the equivalent of $102 million today.  

The majority of public information available about Rebekah Harkness comes from a New York Times article written about her death, titled “Is there a chic way to go?”, a line Harkness reportedly said following the suicide attempt of her daughter. Her other escapades referenced in the article include cleaning her swimming pool with Dom Perignon, throwing plates at an orchestra, swimming nude on a cruise, renovating her mansion to have twenty-one bathrooms and filling her fish tank with scotch and goldfish. Swift refers to a feud between Harkness and a neighbour where she “stole his dog and dyed it key lime green,” the article instead refers to the incident as featuring a cat—unlike the standards expected in historiography, Swift has been able to take liberties with the referencing of Harkness’ life. On her inspiration, Swift said to People magazine,  

“It can be a real pearl-clutching moment for society when a woman owns her desires and wildness, and I love the idea that the woman in question would be too joyful in her freedom to even care that she’s ruffling feathers, raising eyebrows or becoming the talk of the town. The idea that she decided there were marvelous times to be had, and that was more important.” 

The life of Rebekah Harkness summons to mind historian Laurel Ulritch’s assertion that “well-behaved women seldom make history.” It is unclear which stories about the heiress are true and which are merely exaggerated rumours, but whatever the case may be, Harkness certainly lived largely and left her mark. What is abundantly clear is the multitudes of inspiration Taylor Swift found in the unapologetic socialite whose mansion she now occupies. 

Listen to “The Last Great American Dynasty” here: 

Bibliography

Chiu, M. (2021, March 3). “Taylor Swift Reveals the Empowering Story Behind the Folklore Lyric That Makes Her ‘Really Proud’.” People Magazine. https://people.com/music/taylor-swift-folklore-lyric-really-proud-grammys/  

Woytus, A. (2020, July 25). “The story of Rebekah Harkness is way more complicated than Taylor Swift lets on”. St. Louis Magazine. https://www.stlmag.com/culture/music/the-last-great-american-dynasty-rebekah-harkness/ 

Grizzuti Harrison, B. (1988, May 22). “Is There a Chic Way to Go?”. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/22/books/is-there-a-chic-way-to-go.html  

Featured Image Credit: Rebekah Harkness publicity photo. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rebekah_Harkness_publicity_photo.jpg