The President’s Blog

Of all the celebrity deaths these past few months, the death of Mary Travers hit me the hardest.  She was not politically powerful or a musical genius in any way.  She was just a performer who was so direct and honest in her delivery of her music that it overwhelmed you with its beauty.

As a fifteen year old boy, I fell in love with Mary Travers  at a Peter, Paul, and Mary concert in Charlotte NC in the early 1960’s, and her death has made me feel all too mortal.  Fortunately for us all, her music will never die.

A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Mary Travers grew up in New York City and she and Paul Stookey and Peter Yarrow helped make Bob Dylan a household name by performing his song “Blowing in the Wind.”  The trio went on to publicly support many civil rights efforts and even performed at the famous march on Washington DC where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I have a dream” speech.   Sometimes it seems like only yesterday.

You can find tributes to Mary Travers by her partners, Peter Yarrow and Paul Stookey, at this website: http://www.peterpaulandmary.com/