LUCIDMEDIA

Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary dies at 72

Written by Sebastian Frye Friday, 18 September 2009 16:04

Mary Travers, one third of the commercially powerful trio Peter, Paul and Mary alongside Paul Stookey and Peter Yarrow, has died at the age of 72 after a bout with leukemia. In 2006 she underwent a bone marrow transplant and was said to be in "fabulous" condition, however, in more recent years her condition deteriorated rapidly and she was no longer able to perform. Her voice and presence will be remembered by millions as "honest and completely authentic" as stated by Mr. Yarrow in a statement released by the New York Times.
Mary Travers was born in Kentucky but came of age in New York's West Village where she lived with her family in the same building as Pete Seeger, the iconic father-figure of the 1960s resurgence of folk music. Mary had her first exposure to the profession singing back-up for Seeger's Folkways recording "Talking Union" in 1955. Travers was not thinking seriously about pursuing music, instead perceiving it merely as a hobby, even though friends would constantly coax her onstage to hear her beautiful singing.

The folk music revival was gaining momentum and Albert Grossman, who was managing Peter Yarrow and would later manage Bob Dylan, was looking to create a trio similar to The Weavers, Pete Seeger's influential group from the 1950s, for the Baby Boom generation. He asked Yarrow to make a visit to Travers and the two sang harmony on a few songs and decided their voices blended well. They enlisted the talents of Noel Stookey, whose name was later changed to Peter Stookey to invoke a Biblical connotation, as the final peg in their wheel.

They became enormously popular with help from careful arrangements by Milt Okun. The group's sound appealed to mass audiences and was clear, smooth, and powerfully harmonic. As Grossman had envisioned, the group merged the living-room appeal of the Kingston Trio with the authenticity of the Village coffee houses and scored hits such as renditions of "If I Had a Hammer," "Lemon Tree," and Seeger's "Where Have All The Flowers Gone." Their debut garnered a Grammy Award for "If I Had a Hammer."

The group was poised to become, along with a few other acts from the New York Scene including Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, representative of the consciousness of the new generation. The Civil Rights movement erupted and Peter, Paul, and Mary famously performed Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" and "If I Had a Hammer" at the 1963 March on Washington. Travers was notoriously shy as a performer, and suffered from stage fright throughout her career, but it wasn't easy to tell; her onstage performance was striking. Flipping her hair, determinedly singing, and sharply dressed, Travers soaked up the spotlight and attracted the attention of the camera during televised performances. For audiences the group was something new: bohemian, intellectual, edgy, political, and commercial. The subculture of folk music was given a face and the new generation was given icons.

By the mid 1960's, when the Beatles emerged and garnered the attention of audiences world-wide, the appeal of Peter, Paul, and Mary dwindled significantly. Folk music simply wasn't at the forefront of popular music anymore. Bob Dylan went electric and rock-and-roll took over the mainstream. Peter, Paul, and Mary were still making hits however The albums “A Song Will Rise” (1965), “See What Tomorrow Brings” (1965) and “Album 1700” (1967) sold well, as did the singles “For Lovin’ Me” and “Early Morning Rain,” both by Gordon Lightfoot. The gently satirical single “I Dig Rock and Roll Music” (1967) reached the Top 10, and “Leaving on a Jet Plane” (1969), their last hit, reached No. 1 on the charts.

The trio made a split in 1970 after releasing their greatest hits album "Ten Years Together" and Travers embarked on a solo career. She released five albums with marginal success.

In 1978 the trio re-formed to oppose nuclear power in a benefit concert and thereafter performed together occasionally. Their appearances were usually to support political causes. Ms. Travers, in a statement to the New York Times in 1999 said, "I was raised to believe that everybody has a responsibility to their community and I use the word very loosely. It’s a big community. If I get recognized in the middle of the Sinai Desert I have a big community."

Ms. Travers is survived by her fourth husband, Ethan Robbins; two daughters, Erika Marshall of Naples, FL, and Alicia Travers of Greenwich, CN; a sister, Ann Gordon of Oakland, CA; and two grandchildren.