The New York Times. The socialite was born in 1915 to a wealthy family in St. Louis, Missouri. She went to school in South Carolina and married an advertising photographer—but it didn't work out.
So then Rebekah married big-shot oil tycoon William Hale Harkness. The Harknesses shared a HUGE Watch Hill, Rhode Island mansion, called the Holiday House, that featured eight kitchens and 21 baths. "This arrangement effectively kept her from having to see her three children on anything like a regular basis," said the Times of the arrangement. (She would marry four times in total.) In 1961, she became the sponsor of the late Robert Joffrey's small ballet troupe, until it folded in 1975.
Read more on marieclaire.com