Rebekah Harkness
American artist, composer, philanthropist, and founder of the Harkness Ballet (1915-1982)
Rebekah West Harkness (née Semple West; April 17, 1915 – June 17, 1982) also known as Betty Harkness, was an American composer, socialite, sculptor, dance patron, and philanthropist who founded the Harkness Ballet. In 1947, she married William Hale "Bill" Harkness, an attorney and heir to the Standard Oil fortune of William L. Harkness, which made her one of the wealthiest women in America. In addition to her marriage, Harkness also became well known for her personal eccentricities, as well as her contributions to the arts.
Early life
Rebekah Semple West was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1915. She was the second daughter of three children to Allen Tarwater West, a stockbroker and co-founder of G. H. Walker & Co., and Rebekah Cook (née Semple) West. Her grandfather founded the St. Louis Union Trust Company. Neither parent was involved in the upbringing of the children, leaving them to be raised primarily by nannies. Harkness took up dancing and ice skating to lose weight and was highly disciplined in both endeavors.
“Rebekah Harkness” enters the record as american artist, composer, philanthropist, and founder of the Harkness Ballet (1915-1982). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Rebekah, Harkness and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Rebekah Harkness” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Rebekah, Harkness and American provides the most credible route into that argument.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7302000. VIAF identifies the subject as 48299298. The Library of Congress control number is n87927803. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1915, 1982 and 1947.
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This entry incorporates text from “Rebekah Harkness” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.