Hart family fulfills their father's dying wish

By Heidi Glaus

KSDK -- Pass by the Hart house and you might hear the sound of complete chaos seeping through the walls. It only makes sense considering there are nine, yes nine children in the house.

"Sammy's three, Abby is seven, Jason is nine, Adam is 11, Josh is 13, Hanna is 15, Colin is 18, I'm 20 and Ben is 22," Caroline Hart runs through the list.

"In the afternoon around lunchtime we all show up in the kitchen and it gets pretty crazy," adds Hannah Hart.

But more days than not, the predominant sound is a bit sweeter. It all started with Ben who picked up the violin at three.

"And then of course, Caroline watched him and she wanted to play and after that I thought everybody wants to play the violin and then we tried to get Colin to play and it didn't work," explains Kathie Hart, the mother of this musical clan.

"Nope, I tried playing violin when I was five or six and it just wasn't for me. I wanted to be loud and obnoxious," adds Colin, the trombonist.

Hannah, however, followed suit on the strings as did Josh and most of the time the rest of the Hart clan is close by watching, waiting for their turn to play.

"We'll probably kick some of the older kids out and bring them in," jokes Colin.

Unfortunately, there is a bittersweet part of this story.

"It just hit him like a brick, in July he found a tumor and then in August it was diagnosed and he passed away in October, so it was fast," explains Kathie Hart.

Larry Hart, the father of this musical mob died at 56 years old.

"He was a great example, great role model, he loved music," adds Ben Hart.

He had always hoped his children would record some of his favorite hymns.

"But what we had talked about doing was a cd for relatives. It was supposed to be a small project," Kathie recalls.

A year to the day after their father's funeral 'Harts On Strings' released their cd, 'Be Still My Soul,' in his honor.

"It's music that we're passionate about and he was passionate about," says Caroline.

"It was very emotional and sad, but it was definitely a good thing to do," adds Hannah.

So Larry Hart might be in heaven, but his children are now allowing others to experience a little piece of heaven here on earth.

You can purchase their cd at the Barnes-Jewish St. Peters gift store or online at www.hartsonstrings.com.