Farewell to Peter Yarrow of the folk trio Peter, Paul & Mary

Peter Yarrowsinger of the American folk trio Peter, Paul & Mary, he died at the age of 86. The cause is bladder cancer, which Yarrow had been battling for four years, a publicist confirmed.

Yarrow was the lead voice of “Puff the Magic Dragon”, “The Great Mandella” And “Day Is Done”, songs he wrote or co-wrote with Noel Paul Stookey.

At this point Stookey is the last surviving member of the group; Mary Travers actually passed away in 2009.

In their 1960s heyday, the group had six US Top 10 singles and one No. 1 hit, John Denver’s cover of “Leavin’ on a Jet Plane,” as well as five Top 10 albums.

They were also politically progressive and in August 1963, the three participated in the March on Washington where they performed their version of Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, thus making the song a anthem of the civil rights movement.

Yarrow was born on May 31, 1938, to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants who had settled in Providence, Rhode Island. He graduated from Cornell University with a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1959. He began performing during his senior year of college, inspired by what his professors learned throughout his studies.

Yarrow’s songs were often political. With “The Great Mandella” (1967) he told the story of a war objector on hunger strike, while in “Day Is Done” (1969), talking to his son and his generation he suggested to them that they could create and build a better world.

In 1970 he was convicted and served three months in prison for “taking indecent liberties with a minor” after then-14-year-old Barbara Winter reported that, when she went to his hotel room in Washington looking for an autograph, he opened the door naked and forced her to touch him until he ejaculated.

Yarrow was granted a presidential pardon by Jimmy Carter the day before Carter’s presidency ended in January 1981.

In 2019, Yarrow’s planned performance at the Colorscape Chenango Arts festival in New York State was canceled due to that conviction resurfacing.