Posted on 09/17/2009 9:03:39 AM PDT by mlizzy
Mary Travers, a striking figure of power and glamour in the early-1960s folk music movement, died Wednesday at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut after suffering from leukemia for several years. She was 72.
She was best known as the blond with the bangs who commanded the middle microphone with Peter, Paul and Mary, a trio that brought folk music from coffeehouses to top-40 radio.
They also gave much of America its first taste of the young Bob Dylan by helping to turn his "Blowin' in the Wind" into a national anthem.
The group reunited several years ago to begin touring, and Travers performed with them until a few months ago, even when she needed assistance on stage.
Travers, like Paul Stookey and Peter Yarrow, saw folk music both as an art and as an instrument for change. They sang a number of sociopolitical songs, which Travers later defended.
"I'm not sure I want to be singing 'Leaving on a Jet Plane' when I'm 75," she said in one interview. "But I know I'll still be singing 'Blowin' in the Wind.' "
She was born in Louisville, Ky., but grew up in Greenwich Village and came up through the New York coffeehouse circuit, singing on her own before she was put together with Stookey and Yarrow by famed manager Albert Grossman, who also managed Dylan.
The trio took considerable criticism from fellow folk singers for developing a sound that some considered too "commercial" and not "authentic" enough.
Travers always strongly defended the trio's sound, saying that they were in the folk tradition by making music accessible to everyone, not just academic collectors.
Peter, Paul and Mary were inducted into the Sammy Cahn Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2006. Travers is survived by two daughters.
I thought I read elsewhere she was 63.
Oops, I didn’t see the photo when I did my previous post.
Despite their political views and most of their lyrics, I liked a lot of their music. May she rest in peace.
Mary used to live on Gallows Hill Rd in Redding CT. In the 19970s, she used to drive her husband to the West Redding train station and love on him prior to boarding 605AM train to Grand Central Station. RIP
One less communist deceiver/manipulator.
Another piece of my ignorant, but innocent, youth - gone... (sigh)
RIP
Swayze, this broad, now who is the third gonna be???
I saw a program years ago about how the commies and socialists looked for a musical way to get their message out. They chose the American Folk song as the medium and groups like the WEAVERS and PP&M to do it.
People in the 1960’s jokingly referred to them as “two queers and a lesbian.”
Wow, she really looks poor in that picture. I had not realized that she was 72. I would have thought mid 60’s. Though I don’t agree with her political views, she was not in your face and an idiot like so many others. I think she had a good heart and was misguided like so many hippies. RIP...
Henry Gibson.
Any relations to Mel?
Nope. His real name was James Bateman.
Any relations to Batman?
RIP Mary. Have always enjoyed your music (but did not care for your polictics).
Artie Johnson from Laugh In.
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