Peter Yarrow, the singer-songwriter and activist whose work in Peter, Paul, and Mary made him one of the most beloved folk acts of the 1960s, has passed away at age 86.
Yarrow died of bladder cancer on Tuesday, Jan. 7 at his home in New York City, according to PEOPLE.
“He has kept his doctors in awe at his resilience as he has continued to perform and live life in his own generous and cause-driven way,” his children Christopher and Bethany wrote in an Instagram post online in December while asking fans to leave living tributes for their father. “It has been a long road and he has been a strong dragon, but right now he is very weak, and, at 86, his dragon days are numbered.”
Photo by Phil Konstantin
They continued - “There is Peter Yarrow the folk activist legend, and then there is the man, a deeply compassionate man, who changed the lives of so many people in very personal ways.”
Peter, Paul and Mary were known for hits like “Puff, the Magic Dragon,” “Day is Done” and “Light One Candle,” and had a No. 1 hit with a cover of John Denver’s “Leaving on a Jet Plane.” They also recorded a popular cover of Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind,” which they performed in 1963 at the March on Washington led by Martin Luther King, Jr.
In addition to his music career, Yarrow was an activist, and the group played at the March on Washington and at the Selma-Montgomery march two years afterward.
Over the years, Yarrow organized peace concerts that protested the Vietnam War, and was an advocate for hospice patients and children.
In 1996, he founded the Save One Child fund, which provides free interventional radiological neurosurgical treatment to children, and in 1999, he launched the anti-bullying educational nonprofit Operation Respect.
Yarrow said, "People can overcome their differences, and when united, move toward a world of greater fairness and justice." "As in folk music, each person has a unique role to play."
Yarrow is survived by his wife Marybeth McCarthy, whom he married in 1969 and later remarried in 2022, as well as his son Christopher, daughter Bethany and a granddaughter.