Sad news tonight for fans of Peter, Paul and Mary which was just reported. Mary Travers was 72 which amazes me as I would have guessed she was much younger.

Another great musician and memory from the youthful days for many of us at Open Salon now gone.

An appearance with a brief interview on E News from 1998:

Click on the image below for The NewYork Daily News report:

The New York Times had a slide show on their front page last night which has now been moved to the page that includes a lengthy obituary which should be of interest to any fans of the group. Click on image below for the link.

Here is an excerpt from the obituary:

“They made folk music not just palatable but accessible to a mass audience,” David Hajdu, the author of “Positively Fourth Street,” a book about Mr. Dylan, Joan Baez and their circle, said in an interview. Ms. Travers, he added, was crucial to the group’s image, which had a lot to do with its appeal. “She had a kind of sexual confidence combined with intelligence, edginess and social consciousness — a potent combination,” he said. “If you look at clips of their performances, the camera fixates on her. The act was all about Mary.”

On television the group’s mildly bohemian look — Ms. Travers favored beatnik clothing and Mr. Yarrow and Mr. Stookey had mustaches and goatees — gave mainstream audiences their first glimpse of a subculture that had previously been ridiculed on shows like “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.”

For a local angle on her death from the Danbury, CT News-Times I have a link here. I said in the comments last night that she lived in Danbury, CT, but it was Redding, CT which is one town over from Danbury where she had her home for many years.

Here is an excerpt from the News-Times article:

DANBURY -- Mary Travers, one-third of the iconic 1960s folk-music trio Peter Paul and Mary and for years a resident of Redding, died Wednesday at Danbury Hospital. She was 72.

"(Redding) is where she came to relax and be with friends," said former Redding First Selectman Mary Ann Guitar, who was a friend of Travers' mother and who attended the singer's first performance at the Village Vanguard in New York City.

Travers joined Peter Yarrow and Noel "Paul" Stookey in the early 1960s.

She and her husband, Ethan Robbins, lived on Lime Kiln Road for at least 30 years, Guitar said.

Travers had battled leukemia for several years, undergoing a successful bone marrow transplant in 2005 that allowed her to return to performing before her condition worsened earlier this year.

Travers was a longtime friend of noted artist Jimmy Grashow of Redding, and his wife, Guzzy.

Click on the image below for the full story:

From Wikipedia:

Mary Allin Travers (November 9, 1936 – September 16, 2009), was born in Louisville, Kentucky). She was a member of the folk group Peter, Paul and Mary, along with Peter Yarrow and Noel "Paul" Stookey. Together, they formed one of the most successful folk-singing groups of the 1960s.

Travers attended the Little Red School House but she was expelled in the 11th grade. She lived in Greenwich Village, New York, as a high school student. Travers married Barry Feinstein and two daughters were born to them. The marriage ended in divorce. In 2005 she was diagnosed as having leukemia but the treatment went well.

The group Peter, Paul and Mary launched in 1961 and broke up in 1970, after which Travers pursued a solo career, recording five albums on her own. The group reformed in 1978 and have since toured extensively and issued many new albums. The group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999.

The Associated Press reported that Mary Travers died on September 16, 2009. The cause was cancer, said her spokeswoman, Heather Lylis. She had battled leukemia for several years.

An online recorded interview with all three members of the group may be found here:

http://folkmusicarchives.org/ppm.htm