Kate Brewster Webb was born on January 3, 1948 in Burlington, Vermont — the first child of Harry Havemeyer Webb and Kate de Forest Jennings.

Kate spent her first few years living at her grandmother Electra’s Brick House — before moving to High Acres Farm in 1952, when the Main House was completed.

Kate attended Shelburne Community School in Shelburne, before going away to boarding school at St. Timothy’s in Maryland, graduating in 1965.

She then attended Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia, where she wrote her senior thesis on the work of Russian novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, graduating in 1969.

Kate spent her junior year in college studying abroad in Paris at the Sorbonne, where she focused on French literature, history, architecture, and art.

In 1971, Kate was engaged to George Ion Eric Harris, an Irish bloodstock agent whom she met in Maryland on a fox-hunting trip, while visiting friends. They were married three years later, in 1974.

Kate and George spent the first few years of their marriage living in London, but returned to America in 1975 at the time of Harry’s death — agreeing to become the stewards of High Acres Farm, splitting their time between Vermont and New York.

Kate and George had two children together: Jonathan Jennings (born in 1979), and Amanda Havemeyer (born in 1982).

The family split its time between New York City (where Jonathan and Amanda attended school, George ran his business, and where Kate could be involved with the MET Opera) and High Acres Farm (where they spent their vacations).

In 1996, Kate and George ended their marriage, leaving Kate as the sole steward of High Acres Farm — assisted by Frank Galipeau, its longtime caretaker.

Throughout her life, Kate’s great love was opera. She served on board of the Metropolitan Opera Guild for more than thirty years, and was also a board member of the Bagby Foundation for the Musical Arts.

She also served on the Board of Trustees for St. Timothy’s School.

For the next thirty years, Kate continued to split her time between High Acres Farm and her apartment in New York City — until her death on March 5, 2016.

After her death, she entrusted the stewardship of High Acres Farm to her children, Jonathan and Amanda, and their cousin, Michael Darling.