Mary Allin Travers (November 9, 1936 – September 16, 2009) was an American singer-songwriter who was known for being in the famous 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary, along with Peter Yarrow and Paul Stookey. Travers grew up amid the burgeoning folk scene in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

, and she released five solo albums. She sang in the

contralto A contralto () is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range is the lowest female voice type. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare; similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to that of a countertenor, typica ...

range.

Early life and education

Mary Travers was born in 1936 in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

, to Robert Travers and Virginia Coigney, journalists and active organizers of The Newspaper Guild, a trade union. In 1938, the family moved to

in New York City. Mary attended the progressive Little Red School House, where she met musical icons like

Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notabl ...

and Paul Robeson. Robeson sang her lullabies. Travers left school in the 11th grade to become a member of the Song Swappers folk group.

Singing career

The Song Swappers sang backup for

on four reissue albums in 1955, when Folkways Records reissued a collection of Seeger's pro-union folk songs, '' Talking Union''. Travers regarded her singing as a hobby and was shy about it, but was encouraged by fellow musicians. She also was in the cast of the Broadway show ''The Next President''. The group Peter, Paul and Mary was formed in 1961, and was an immediate success. They shared a manager, Albert Grossman, with

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

. Their success with Dylan's "

Don't Think Twice, It's All Right "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" is a song written by Bob Dylan in 1962, recorded on November 14 that year, and released on the 1963 album ''The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'' and as the b-side of the ''Blowin' in the Wind'' single. The song was cov ...

" helped propel Dylan's '' Freewheelin''' album into the U.S. Top 30 four months after its release. Peter, Paul and Mary broke up in 1970, shortly after having their biggest UK hit, singer-songwriter

John Denver Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. (December 31, 1943 – October 12, 1997), known professionally as John Denver, was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor, activist, and humanitarian whose greatest commercial success was as a solo singe ...

's ballad " Leaving on a Jet Plane" (originally titled "Babe I Hate To Go") ( UK No. 2, February 1970). The song, which reached the top of both the U.S. '' Billboard'' and ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an onli ...

'' charts in December 1969, was the group's only number one hit. Travers subsequently pursued a solo career and recorded five albums: '' Mary'' (1971), ''Morning Glory'' (1972), ''All My Choices'' (1973), ''Circles'' (1974) and ''It's in Everyone of Us'' (1978). Peter, Paul and Mary re-formed in 1978, toured extensively, and issued many new albums until Travers' death. The group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999.

Personal life

Travers was married four times. Her first brief union, to John Filler, produced her older daughter, Erika, in 1960. In 1963, she married Barry Feinstein, a prominent freelance photographer of musicians and celebrities. Her younger daughter, Alicia, was born in 1966, and the couple divorced the following year. In the 1970s, she was married to Gerald Taylor, publisher of '' National Lampoon''. Following her marriage to Taylor, Travers had a relationship for several years with lawyer

Richard Ben-Veniste Richard Ben-Veniste (born January 3, 1943) is an American lawyer. He first rose to prominence as a special prosecutor during the Watergate scandal. He has also been a member of the 9/11 Commission. He is known for his pointed questions and criti ...

while raising her daughters in New York. In 1991 she married restaurateur Ethan Robbins and lived with him in the small town of Redding, Connecticut for the remainder of her life.

Illness and death

In 2004, Travers was diagnosed with

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ...

. A bone marrow transplant in 2005 induced a temporary remission, but she died on September 16, 2009, at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut, from complications related to the marrow transplant and other treatments. She was buried at Umpawaug Cemetery in Redding, Connecticut.

Legacy

A memorial service for Travers was held on November 9, 2009, at

Riverside Church Riverside Church is an interdenominational church in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, on the block bounded by Riverside Drive, Claremont Avenue, 120th Street and 122nd Street near Columbia University's Mornin ...

In New York City. The four-hour service, on what would have been her seventy-third birthday, was attended by a capacity crowd. Two of the many reflections shared at the service speak to the impact of Mary Travers's work and the significance of her legacy. Feminist

Gloria Steinem Gloria Marie Steinem (; born March 25, 1934) is an American journalist and social-political activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Steinem was a c ...

commented that with her poise and conviction as a performer, Ms. Travers "seemed to us to be a free woman, and that helped us to be free." Folk singer and co-founder of the Newport Folk Festival, Theodore Bikel, mused on her roles as political activist and glamorous pop-music touchstone:

Solo discography

*'' Mary'', Warner Bros., 1971 *''Morning Glory'', Warner Bros., 1972 *''All My Choices'', Warner Bros., 1973 *''Circles'', Warner Bros., 1974 *''It's in Everyone of Us'', Chrysalis, 1978

References

External links

* . * . * . * * . * . * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Travers, Mary 1936 births 2009 deaths Musicians from Louisville, Kentucky American women singer-songwriters American folk singers Deaths from cancer in Connecticut Deaths from leukemia Singers from New York City People from Redding, Connecticut People from Greenwich Village Warner Records artists Chrysalis Records artists 20th-century American singers Singer-songwriters from Kentucky Folk musicians from Kentucky American contraltos Kentucky women musicians Singers from Kentucky 20th-century American women singers Little Red School House alumni Singer-songwriters from New York (state) 21st-century American women Singer-songwriters from Connecticut