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Peter Yarrow, whose Peter, Paul and Mary trio helped bridge folk music into the pop world with such hit songs as "Puff the Magic Dragon" and "If I Had a Hammer," has died at 86. He had bladder cancer, his publicist confirmed.
Yarrow's death comes as the music scene in New York's Greenwich Village, of which he was an integral part, has undergone a revival of interest thanks to the Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown.
After Mary Travers died in 2009, the trio's co-writer, Noel Paul Stookey, is now the last surviving member of Peter, Paul and Mary, which had six Top 10 singles in the U.S. and one No. 1 hit, a cover of John Denver's "Leaving on a Jet Plane." The group also had five Top 10 albums. Yarrow handled lead vocals on the songs "Puff the Magic Dragon," "The Great Mandala" and "Day Is Done."
Yarrow was discovered by Albert Grossman, who also managed Bob Dylan. Actor Nick Pupo plays Yarrow in A Complete Unknown.
Peter, Paul and Mary were immersed in the volatile politics of the 1960s.They sang Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" in 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial as part of the civil rights protest dubbed the "March on Washington." Yarrow's "The Great Mandala" was a protest song about a hunger strike against war, and his "Day is Done" was a battle cry that his generation would make a better world.
While he made an undeniable impact on the music scene of the '60s, Yarrow was convicted in 1970 for "taking indecent liberties with a minor" and served three months in prison for the offense. He was later granted a presidential pardon by Jimmy Carter in 1981.
Stookey, the "Paul" of Peter, Paul and Mary, called Yarrow a "brother" in his statement on the death.
"Being an only child, growing up without siblings may have afforded me the full attention of my parents, but with the formation of Peter, Paul and Mary, I suddenly had a brother named Peter Yarrow. He was best man at my wedding and I at his. He was a loving 'uncle' to my three daughters. And, while his comfort in the city and my love of the country tended to keep us apart geographically, our different perspectives were celebrated often in our friendship and our music," Stookey shared in a statement.
"I was five months older than Peter – who became my creative, irrepressible, spontaneous and musical younger brother – yet at the same time, I grew to be grateful for, and to love, the mature-beyond-his-years wisdom and inspiring guidance he shared with me like an older brother," the musician continued. "Politically astute and emotionally vulnerable, perhaps Peter was both of the brothers I never had...and I shall deeply miss both of him."
Yarrow is survived by his wife, Marybeth, son Christopher, daughter Bethany and granddaughter Valentina.
Bethany Yarrow asked for contributions to her father's not-for-profit, Operation Respect, an anti-bullying program that has been implemented in more than 22,000 schools internationally. A memorial service is planned for a later date.
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