Mary Travers, the folk legend who performed some of the most durable folk anthems of the 1960s with Paul Stookey and Peter Yarrow has died on Wednesday, at age 72 at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut, she lost the battle of her life with leukaemia
The singer had undergone bone marrow transplantation in 2006 and was good enough but this year, her condition degenerated and she was no longer able to perform.
She started her early career when she was in her high school by joining the “Song Swappers,” she considered her singing as a hobby and was reticent and shy about it. Their musical group Peter, Paul and Mary were formed in 1961 and became popular for its composition and performance of anthems such as “Blowin’ in the Wind”, “If I Had a Hammer” and many other. In 1970, the group split up, and Travers consequently followed a solo career and recorded her five solo albums. The group re-joined in 1978, toured comprehensively and issued some new albums. The group was initiated into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999.
The group gained gigantic success for their easy-listening style, their most legendary and famous releases were “Leaving on a Jet Plan” and Puff (The Magic Dragon), and for these anthem they got five Grammy Awards throughout their career.
In the 1960s, her version of If I Had A Hammer got fame as an anthem for national correspondence
Her colleagues said that she was an activist, outspoken and inspiring, her personality magnetism was a scarcely contained nervous energy, she will be remembering forever.
Paul Stookey
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