Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary—an iconic folk-rock band that was popular in the 1960s and early 1970s—died on Jan. 7 at his home in New York City. He was 89 years old.
The group consisted of Yarrow, Paul Stookey and Mary Travers. Their debut album, ”Peter, Paul and Mary,” was produced in 1962 by Warner Bros.
The next year, they released the song “Puff the Magic Dragon,” which reached No. 2 on the Billboard charts. Other well-known hits included “If I Had a Hammer,” “Lemon Tree” and “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”
The trio participated in the 1963 March on Washington and covered major artists, such as Bob Dylan and John Denver, in addition to writing original songs. The band broke up in 1970 to pursue individual careers.
That same year, Yarrow was convicted of taking “indecent liberties” with a 14-year-old girl and served three months of a maximum three-year prison sentence. Years later, in 1981, he was pardoned by President Jimmy Carter, according to The New York Times. The Washington Post reported the pardon didn’t receive much media attention as the news came “just hours before the American hostages in Iran were freed.”
‘Advancing the causes of human rights’
The son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, singer/songwriter and guitarist Yarrow grew up in Manhattan. A student at New York’s High School of Music and Art, he graduated from Cornell University in 1959.
Yarrow began singing in college and was an early advocate of social justice. He started a campaign to help free Soviet Jewry in the 1970s and ’80s, and wrote the Chanukah song “Light One Candle,” which he sang on the U.S. Capitol steps in 1987 during a march for the cause.
Among his music and other honors, Yarrow received the Allard K. Lowenstein Award in 1982 for his “remarkable efforts in advancing the causes of human rights, peace and freedom.” He won the Tikkun Olam Award from the Miami Jewish Federation in 1995, according to the official Peter, Paul and Mary website.
He also headed a nonprofit group called “Operation Respect” to combat bullying and promote tolerance among children. Congress recognized him in 2003 for those achievements.
His son and daughter, Christopher Yarrow and Bethany Yarrow, asked family, friends and fans to contribute written stories, videos and audio messages before their father’s passing about how he “touched their lives in ways big and small” to be viewed while he was in hospice, according to the official website.
“These words and contributions are more than just stories–they are his true legacy which will endure long after he is gone. Puff the Magic Dragon is forever,” they said.
Mary Travers died in 2009 at 72, making Stookey the last surviving member of the group.
In addition to his children, Yarrow is survived by his wife, Marybeth McCarthy, a niece of 1968 Democratic presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy.
