Peter Yarrow had been battling bladder cancer for the past four years. Photo: AP
Peter Yarrow, the singer-songwriter best known as one-third of Peter, Paul and Mary, the folk-music trio whose impassioned harmonies transfixed millions as they lifted their voices in favor of civil rights and against war, has died. He was 86.
Yarrow, who also co-wrote the group's most enduring song, Puff The Magic Dragon, died Tuesday in New York, publicist Ken Sunshine said. Yarrow had been battling bladder cancer for the past four years.
During an incredible run of success spanning the 1960s, Yarrow, Noel Paul Stookey and Mary Travers released six Billboard Top 10 singles, two No.1 albums and won five Grammys.
They also brought early exposure to Bob Dylan by turning two of his songs, Don't Think Twice, It's All Right and Blowin' In The Wind, into Billboard Top 10 hits as they helped lead an American renaissance in folk music. They performed Blowin’ In The Wind at the 1963 March on Washington at which the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream” speech.
After an eight-year hiatus to pursue solo careers, the trio reunited in 1978 for a "Survival Sunday", an anti-nuclear-power concert that Yarrow had organised in Los Angeles. They would remain together until Travers' death in 2009. Upon her passing, Yarrow and Stookey continued to perform both separately and together. – AP
Legendary American folk group Peter, Paul & Mary perform during its first concert in Hong Kong late March 9, 2001. The group is composed of (from left) Mary Travers, Noel Paul Stookey and Peter Yarrow. Photo: ReutersKC/JD/File Photo
