Trimborn Donates Truman Portrait

“The Maestro,” an original portrait of Harry S Truman playing the piano, now hangs permanently in the Department of Music outside the performance hall in Ophelia Parrish. It is a gift from the artist, Thomas Trimborn, professor of music. The work is in mixed media combining colored pencil and tempera on heavy illustration board. Truman studied piano extensively as a youngster and continued playing throughout his life. Yearly during the 1930s and 1940s he would travel to Caruthersville, Mo., to attend the county fair and in 1945 he played a piece for a group of Methodist Women, winking at them as he said, “When I played this, Stalin signed the Potsdam Agreement.”