Thomas Hart Benton in his studio next to his home at 3616 Belleview in 1951. File The Kansas City Star Fifty years after Thomas Hart Benton suffered a heart attack and died at age 85 while working ...

Although he'd been to soirées in "Paree" and New York's Stork Club, American artist and muralist Thomas Hart Benton played a harmonica and reveled in his self-honed image as a hard-drinking ...