If you weren't spending the weekend either partying at or fuming over The Chainsmokers concert in the Hamptons, chances are you were indulging in the emotional coziness of Taylor Swift's surprise folksy album drop (we told you Cottagecore was the aesthetic of the summer). While we all cried along to that one track featuring Bon Iver (let's not talk about it), the emergent fan favorite has no doubt been the slightly catchier "The Last Great American Dynasty," which tells the tale of real life socialite Rebekah West Harkness.
It's no coincidence that Swift feels an affinity towards the midcentury heiress - Harkness once owned the Rhode Island mansion the singer purchased back in 2013 for $17.75 million (in cash). She also, like Swift, was known to make plenty of headlines in her day.
Born to a wealthy St. Louis family in 1915, she did indeed marry the heir of the Standard Oil fortune, William Hale Harkness, in 1947 and together they settled into the beachfront property and called it "Holiday House." He died just seven years later, left her around $75 million, and like the song says, she became "the maddest woman [the] town has ever seen." In the most fabulous way possible, of course. From champagne-swimming to pet-dyeing, click through for the true stories of her lavish mischief mentioned in Swift's lyrics - and then some.
[Photo via Getty]
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