And now for some sad news. Mary Travers — that is, Mary from Peter, Paul and Mary — succumbed to leukemia in Danbury, Connecticut today, reports the AP.
Travers had an illustrious career with her bandmates, Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul Stookey, and was one of the foremost political artists in the turbulent sixties: PP&M performed their rendition of “If I Had a Hammer” at the 1963 march on Washington, D.C., at which Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech; the song became an anthem of the civil rights movement. Other PP&M hits include “Puff (The Magic Dragon),” “Leaving on a Jet Plane” and “Lemon Tree.”
Travers was also involved in humanitarian efforts in Russia, Nicaragua, South Africa; in fact, she, Yarrow and Stookey were arrested for an act of civil disobedience at the South African Embassey at an anti-apartheid demonstration. She worked on behalf of the homeless and had “an active role at the Center for the Development of International Policy” in Washington D.C.
As expected, her bandmates are grief-stricken; click here for their statements.
Travers will be missed, and we at TwentyFourBit hope that she’s frolicking in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee.