Mary Travers: Legendary Folk Voice Now Blowin’ in the Wind Forever

“Those of us who live in a democracy have a responsibility to be a voice for those whose voices are stilled,” Mary Travers said in a radio interview years ago. I was asking her from where she drew her strength, her commitment to so many social causes. The folk legend, the striking beatnik blonde who added a sultry and sometimes sanguine voice to the three part harmony that made Peter, Paul & Mary the most successful folk trio in history, lost her valiant struggle with leukemia on September 16 on Wednesday at 72.

Travers had grown up in Greenwich Village, New York City’s progressive enclave that would become the Mecca for beats and folkies in the late 50’s and early ‘60’s. Her parents were journalists; she grew up in the same building where Pete Seeger lived. She even sang back up for Seeger for a bit, had a small role in an off-Broadway show featuring comedian Mort Sahl, but never thought she’d make a career out of it. It was a hobby that quickly became a burgeoning profession after manager Albert Grossman (also Bob Dylan’s manager) who had been looking for “the girl” to round-out a trio that would also include Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul Stookey, settled on Travers because of her sex appeal as much as her voice.

The trio’s debut album, “If I Had a Hammer,” released in 1962 spawned two hits, the title track, a Pete Seeger classic which quickly became an anti-war anthem and “Lemon Tree” It also garnered the group their first two Grammy Awards. They went on to collect five Grammies, and their popularity, unmatched by any folk group before or since, peaked in 1963 when they had three albums on Billboard’s top ten at the same time.

Singing Bob Dylan’s peace anthem, “Blowin in the Wind” at the famed 1963 March on Washington remained a highlight in her amazing career. “It was so thrilling,” she said. “It’s hard to describe, we knew we were in the middle of something important.” Peter, Paul & Mary’s recording of that song, which sold 300,000 copies in under two weeks also brought national mainstream attention to Dylan.

Their ’65 hit “Puff the Magic Dragon,” sparked controversy when some critics suggested the song was really about marijuana and not about little Jackie Paper growing up and outgrowing his childhood figments. People said something similar about the Beatles “ Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” thinking it was about an LSD trip, when John Lennon insisted it was inspired by his son Julian’s drawing,

It was “Puff” and other songs like “The Marvelous Toy” that would launch Peter, Paul & Mary as a popular family act. Their album, “Peter, Paul & Mommy” won a Grammy for Best Children’s album in 1969.

The trio disbanded in 1971 and each went on to pursue solo projects. Travers released five albums and became a popular speaker and often wrote op-ed articles for newspapers and magazines.

Peter, Paul & Mary had many reunions and a resurgence of both recording success and political activism in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s. I remember slipping in “ Weave me the Sunshine” and even “ El Salvador” when I was music director of a pretty conservative AM station. Even if they didn’t agree with their politics, people loved Peter, Paul & Mary. There is something about music that transcends the gritty nature of politics. Something happens to us when we listen to music. It brings out our joyous, best selves. Creating it has that affect on artists, too. “Our creativity, our ability to emerge over the years was completely because of the music itself,” Yarrow said in a tribute letter posted on the group’s website.

“There will always be a hole in my heart, a place where she will always exist,” Yarrow said.

Stookey, who said that he was heartsick over Travers’ passing, remembers her as generous, witty and politically savvy. “ She was the master/mistress of the cutting exit line. Once I was attempting to defend Ronald Reagan’s educational policy. She interrupted me with ‘For heaven’s sake, do your homework.’ Need I say, she was right?

Tireless to the end, Travers cared about so many causes, so many people. It sounds corny, I guess, but the world was her community. She said, “ If people recognize me, how can I not recognize them and their needs?” That’s why the family concerts that the group became so famous for in their later years were so important to her. She was sharing joy with generations of fans. But beyond that, I think, she was enlisting them for a greater calling.

“If I’ve learned anything,” she told me, “it’s that it will take more than one generation to bring about change.”

Travers sweet voice, now forever blowin’ in the wind, leaves behind so many songs and so much humanity.

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