Mary Travers, 1936 - 2009

Mary Travers passed away on September 16 following a long battle with cancer. As a member of legendary folk trio Peter, Paul And Mary and through her solo work, Travers was a driving force in the folk music boom of the 1960s, and to the end remained a passionate “voice for those whose voices are stilled.” She was 72.

Born in Louisville, KY, Mary grew up in New York City’s Greenwich Village, which by the 1950s boasted a vibrant traditional music scene. As a teen, she recorded with folk group The Song Swappers and performed with such luminaries as Pete Seeger and Mort Sahl. But it was with fellow musicians Peter Yarrow and Noel “Paul” Stookey that Mary Travers would find enduring fame.

Peter, Paul And Mary were the right group at the right time. The “New Frontier” promised by the election of President John F. Kennedy challenged millions to ask what they could do for their country, echoing the pleas for social justice that had been the foundation of folk songs for decades. When Peter, Paul And Mary’s self-titled debut was released in 1962, it spent nearly ten months in the Top Ten. The next year at Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famed March On Washington, they sang “If I Had A Hammer,” making the trio icons of the Civil Rights movement.

But the secret to Peter, Paul And Mary’s success went far beyond simply staying in step with the right causes. All three were experienced singers whose voices blended perfectly, and Mary’s long blonde locks gave the group a visual focus that artists like The Kingston Trio lacked. And though PP & M could reinvigorate traditional songbooks like Woody Gutherie’s or The Weavers’, they also had great ears for new material -- whether self-composed like the 1963 hit “Puff The Magic Dragon,” or penned by up-and-coming songwriters like Bob Dylan (“Blowin’ In The Wind”), Gordon Lightfoot (“Early Mornin’ Rain”), and John Denver (“Leaving On A Jet Plane”).

Following a spectacular run of success in the 1960s, the three went their separate ways for a time in the 1970s. Mary recorded four solo albums, performed with symphonies, and helmed series for syndicated radio and the BBC. Through it all, her commitment to human rights remained undaunted, broadening to include campaigning on behalf of disenfranchised peoples around the world. By the 1980s, Travers had reunited with Yarrow and Stookey, and the trio shed light on injustices in El Salvador, Nicaragua, the Soviet Union, and South Africa as well as focusing attention on the plight of the homeless and migrant workers the United States.

Popular music can be a call to engagement as well as a source of diversion. From their first appearance at New York’s Bitter End coffeehouse until their final performance in May of this year, Peter, Paul And Mary rallied the troops to fight the good fight for almost half a century. Through her music and her life, Mary Travers will continue to inspire everyone who believes that liberty and justice belong to all.

A Message From Scott Pascucci, President of Rhino Entertainment

American music has lost one of its strongest, truest voices with the passing today of Mary Travers. As part of Peter, Paul And Mary, she was at the forefront of the ’60s folk renaissance, inspiring millions of people to greater activism on behalf of racial equality, peace, and opportunity for the oppressed.

Surely the most successful folk trio of all time, Peter, Paul And Mary have been a loved member of the Warner Music Group family for nearly 50 years. Their 1962 debut album brought folk music of consciousness to the top of the charts and was monumental in launching the fledgling Warner Bros. Records label. Their unprecedented string of gold and platinum albums, hit singles, and Grammy® Awards was truly astonishing - at one point in 1963, three of their albums were in the top six of the Billboard albums chart. In 2004, the trio performed in our offices in support of their final album, In These Times; and the joy they felt for their music and the responsibility they felt toward their audiences remained as clear as when they began nearly half a century ago.

Mary was always a champion for human rights. Along with Peter and Noel Paul, she performed at the March on Washington in 1963 where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his legendary “I Have a Dream” speech. They also performed in support of Cesar Chavez and the UFW at Carnegie Hall in the late 1960s and for strawberry pickers in California in the 1990s. They performed at national marches for women's choice in Washington and demonstrated in support of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, committing an act of civil disobedience that led to the trio's arrest in front of the South African Embassy.

Although society’s challenges have changed since the legendary day on which “If I Had A Hammer” rang out at our nation’s Capitol, the need to engage in the process of improving our world remains just as great, and Mary’s music and life will continue to inspire generations to come to improve the world in which we live.

Our condolences go out to Mary’s husband Ethan, her daughters Alicia and Erika, and to Peter and Noel Paul.