Harrington was born in 1908 in
Amarillo, 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. Harrington was a prominent benefactor of the
New York Metropolitan Opera, 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. Harrington would later fund
Franco Zeffirelli's
La bohème, Tosca and
Turandot, Otto Schenk's Meistersinger, Elijah Moshinsky's production of Verdi's
Otello, Puccini's
Manon Lescaut, Johann Strauss's Fledermaus, Wagner's Rheingold and
Mozart's Don Giovanni. She became a member of the
Metropolitan Opera Association 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. == References ==