We’re sad today over the death at age 72 of Mary Travers, the soaring female voice of the 1960s’ folk supergroup Peter, Paul and Mary.  Her wide smile and happily crinkled eyes were as distinctive as her sonorous voice, and her battle with leukemia for several years did not silence her song or her passion for the social justice causes she cared so deeply about.

What survives is the music. 

See below for 5 YouTube vids, including my favorite version of “Early Morning Rain,” highlighting Mary in her heyday.  Notice the passion with which she leans into the microphone. The way she seems to hold the lyrics in her hands. And the head-shaking.  Oh, the head-shaking.

Please share your Peter, Paul and Mary stories–were you at the March on Washington?  Did you get into folk music when Peter, Paul and Mary rendered Bob Dylan’s stellar lyrics intelligible?  Did you, like me, grow up listening to your parents’ P, P & M records and feeling sad for Little Jackie Paper?

(image via: http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2005-12/2005-12-03-voa27.cfm?moddate=2005-12-03)

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