Harle Tinney was born in Rhode Island in April 1941.Her father was an ophthalmologist and her mother a school teacher and violinist. At the age of seven Harle studied cello and played in the RI Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. After graduation from Classical High School magna cum Laude in 1959, preparing for a medical career, Harle Hanson attended Albion College in Michigan with biology and chemistry majors. A worker in the school book store and pitcher on the freshman softball team, she enjoyed synchronized swimming, water safety instructor, canoeing, tennis, etc. She was elected President of the Freshman Women’s Honorary Society. Her singing teacher Emma Beldan obtained an interview for her summer job as a tour guide with Mrs. Harold B. Tinney, an owner of the Newport mansion “Belcourt”. Harle transferred to Pembroke College in Providence in the Fall of 1960. The months as a tour guide opened her interest in history. She eloped with Donald Harold Tinney in December 1960, at the age of nineteen. The formal wedding, including ceremony and reception was planned by Ruth Tinney over many months until August 25, 1961. Harle took on an unusual fairytale life at Belcourt Castle. In addition to being the principal tour guide, she participated in salvage projects saving architectural elements to be repurposed at Belcourt Castle in the museum. The family bought a stained glass business in 1961 while at Belcourt hosting large corporate events, music festivals, concerts, and theme parties. In 1971 the Family began catering the events at Belcourt and Harle learned the food business, later establishing her own Catering Arts Company. In 1969, as Secretary/Treasurer of the Royal Arts Foundation Harle began another mini career which lasted until 1999, when she became “Executive Director”. After 1984 Belcourt Castle booked from five to twenty weddings each year and Harle added “wedding coordinator” to many jobs: tour coordinator and guide, restorer, wood carver, gilder, bookkeeper, historian and archive manager, event hostess, cook, caterer, and business manager.

Donald Tinney died on January 16, 2006. Harle continued to reside at Belcourt Castle and wrote a book “The Ghosts of Belcourt Castle”. In 2012 she sold Belcourt Castle and moved to nearby Middletown. Her second book “Belcourt Castle: Milestones and Memories” was self-published in 2018. She now gives lectures, and is working on historical Newport memories for another book. She helped produce a movie “Newport Castle” written by Karen Iacobbo, The Providence Lyceum, finished in early 2019, which was screened in the Hoboken Film Festival. In retirement, she gives historical lectures mostly relating to Belcourt Castle. She is active in Trinity Church in Newport. For 2021 she plans to show or market for weddings the gold coronation coach which was created by the Tinney Family in 1966-1969. For the past four years she has served on the Board of the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Newport County and gives a scholarship to High school seniors who plan careers in the arts.