His son Christopher said he died in a hospital but did not specify the cause. Mr. Benson practiced the ancient and exacting art of carving into rock; slate was his preferred medium. He did so, precisely and gorgeously, on cornerstones, gravestones and monuments, as his father had before him, working out of an atelier in Newport called the John Stevens Shop. The art Mr. Benson practiced is mostly devoted to mortality, the brief span of a life, though it is designed for eternity, or something close to it. Mr. Benson could spend a day carving a cross; a gravestone might take three months.

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Persons: John Everett Benson, —, Christopher, Benson, John Stevens Organizations: John Stevens Shop Locations: Newport, R.I