Sybil Buckingham Harrington (1908–1998) was an American philanthropist. She was inducted into the

Texas Women's Hall of Fame The Texas Women's Hall of Fame was established in 1984 by the Governor's Commission on Women. The honorees are selected biennially from submissions from the public. The honorees must be either native Texans or a resident of Texas at the time of t ...

Biography

Harrington was born in 1908 in

Amarillo Amarillo, yellow or golden in Spanish, may refer to: Places * Amarillo, Texas, city in the US * Amarillo, Western Australia, former name for Keralup, Western Australia People * Amarillo Slim (1928–2012), American poker player * Eric Amarill ...

, daughter of Frank Buckingham, and to grandparent J.E. Hughes. On October 5, 1924 she married Edwin Ray Reeder at the First Baptist Church in Canyon, TX. She was a Junior at Amarillo High at the time. Her first marriage ended two years later. In 1935, she married Donald D. Harrington, a successful oil worker. In 1951, the couple created the Don and Sybil Harrington Foundation, which would grow to have more than $73 million in assets. Harrington extensively donated money to areas around and on the Texas Panhandle, including the musical developed by the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, ''

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

''. Harrington was a prominent benefactor of the

New York Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera is an American opera company based in New York City, currently resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Referred to colloquially as the Met, the company ...

, underwriting 16 productions, two gala concerts, and 13 “Metropolitan Presents” telecasts. In her lifetime, she donated over $30 million to the Opera. The first gift she made was in funding Verdi's ''

Don Carlos ''Don Carlos'' is an 1867 five-act grand opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a French-language libretto by Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle, based on the 1787 play '' Don Karlos, Infant von Spanien'' (''Don Carlos, Infante of Spain'') by Fried ...

''. Harrington would later fund

Franco Zeffirelli Gian Franco Corsi Zeffirelli (; 12 February 1923 – 15 June 2019) was an Italian stage and film director, producer, production designer and politician. He was one of the most significant opera and theatre directors of the post–World War II e ...

's ''

La bohème ''La bohème'' ( , ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions '':wikt:quadro, quadri'', ''wikt:tableau, tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto b ...

,'' ''

Tosca ''Tosca'' is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. The work, based on Victorien Sardou's 1 ...

'' and ''

Turandot ''Turandot'' ( ; see #Origin and pronunciation of the name, below) is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. Puccini left the opera unfinished at the time of his death in 1924; it ...

,'' Otto Schenk's ''

Meistersinger A (German for "master singer") was a member of a German guild for lyric poetry, composer, composition and a cappella, unaccompanied art song of the 14th to 16th centuries. The Meistersingers were drawn from middle class males for the most part ...

,'' Elijah Moshinsky's production of Verdi's ''

Otello ''Otello'' () is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on William Shakespeare, Shakespeare's play ''Othello''. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, first performed at the La Scala, Teatro alla Scala, M ...

,''

Puccini Giacomo Puccini (22 December 1858 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long line of composers, s ...

's ''

Manon Lescaut ''The Story of the Chevalier des Grieux and Manon Lescaut'' ( ) is a novel by Antoine François Prévost. It tells a tragic love story about a nobleman (known only as the Chevalier des Grieux) and a common woman (Manon Lescaut). Their decisio ...

,'' Johann Strauss's ''

Fledermaus ' (, ''The Bat'', sometimes called ''The Revenge of the Bat'') is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée, which premiered in 1874. Background The original literary source for ' was ' ...

,'' Wagner's ''Rheingold'' and Mozart's ''

Don Giovanni ''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; full title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanish legen ...

.'' She became a member of the

Metropolitan Opera Association The Metropolitan Opera is an American opera company based in New York City, currently resident at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center), Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Referred ...

in 1968. Two years later, she became a director of its managing board, and then eight years following an advisory director. Her house, the Harrington House, is a 15,000-square-foot mansion that is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. Harrington was awarded Woman of the Year from the ''Amarillo News-Globe'', a

Doctor of Letters Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or '), also termed Doctor of Literature in some countries, is a terminal degree in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. In the United States, at universities such as Drew University, the degree ...

from Texas Tech University School of Medicine, from

West Texas A&M University West Texas A&M University (WTAMU or WT) is a public university in Canyon, Texas, United States. It is the northernmost campus of the Texas A&M University System and accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, Southern Associat ...

, an Honorary Doctor of Philosophy Humanitarian Award, Women's Distinguished Service, the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach progr ...

named her an honorary member of

Texas Society of Architects The Texas Society of Architects is an organization based in Austin, Texas, that represents over 7,000 architects in Texas that are members of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). The mission statement of the Society, is "to be the voice for ...

, and from the Academy of Television Arts and Science, Outstanding Classical Program in the Performing Arts. Harrington also established the Sybil B. Harrington Living Trust in 1987 to fund educational and other entities. It is separate from the foundation.

References

Philanthropists from Texas 1908 births 1998 deaths People from Amarillo, Texas 20th-century American philanthropists 20th-century American women philanthropists {{Texas-bio-stub