Folk singer Peter Yarrow — writer of the timeless classic “Puff the Magic Dragon” and one-third of the legendary folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary — died Tuesday, a family representative said.
He was 86 and had been diagnosed with bladder cancer four years ago.
Yarrow died in New York City with loved ones by his side, publicist Ken Sunshine confirmed to NBC News.
Daughter Bethany Yarrow said in a statement: “Our fearless dragon is tired and has entered the last chapter of his magnificent life. The world knows Peter Yarrow the iconic folk activist, but the human being behind the legend is every bit as generous, creative, passionate, playful, and wise as his lyrics suggest.”
Peter Yarrow, Mary Travers and Noel Paul Stookey in Chicago on Aug. 12, 1978. Paul Natkin / Getty Images
Mary Travers, 72, died in 2009, leaving Noel Paul Stookey, 87, as the last surviving member of Peter, Paul and Mary.
The trio’s songs were part of the soundtrack for the Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam War movements. Yarrow co-wrote the group’s most enduring song, “Puff the Magic Dragon,” based on a poem by the late Lenny Lipton.
The trio joined other notable acts of the time, including Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, at the 1963 March on Washington when Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
They went to Washington that day at the invitation of Harry Belafonte.
“At the time, the country was saying a pledge of allegiance, ‘With liberty and justice for all,’ but it was fatuous because it wasn’t for all,” Yarrow would say years later.
“People of color did not have justice. They did not have freedom. They couldn’t vote. In Washington, D.C., if you were a person of color, you couldn’t use a public bathroom. You couldn’t use the water fountain unless it said, ‘For colored only.’ So when Peter, Paul and Mary were approached by Harry Belafonte, we, of course, said yes. We were well prepared to sing what we sang.”
Other hits by the trio included “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “Leaving on a Jet Plane,” “Lemon Tree” and “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right.”
Stookey said that growing up as an only child, he never knew what it was like to have a brother until he met Yarrow. They were best men at each other’s weddings.
“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 said 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. Politically astute and emotionally vulnerable, perhaps Peter was both of the brothers I never had … and I shall deeply miss both of him.”
Yarrow kept a relatively low profile later in life after he was convicted in 1970 of molesting a 14-year-old girl in a Washington, D.C., hotel room in 1969.
He spent three months behind bars and was pardoned by President Jimmy Carter just before his term ended in 1981.
The assault permanently stained Yarrow’s reputation, particularly in the #MeToo era, as he was regularly disinvited from events once his name became known as a performing guest.
Yarrow didn’t dispute his acts.
“I fully support the current movements demanding equal rights for all and refusing to allow continued abuse and injury — most particularly of a sexual nature, of which I am, with great sorrow, guilty,” Yarrow said in a statement to The New York Times after invitation to a 2019 festival in Binghamton, New York, was withdrawn.
“I do not seek to minimize or excuse what I have done and I cannot adequately express my apologies and sorrow for the pain and injury I have caused in this regard,” he said.
Yarrow is survived by his wife, Marybeth; a son, Christopher; a daughter, Bethany; and a granddaughter, Valentina.
Yarrow’s family asked fans to make donations in his honor to the nonprofit anti-bullying campaign Operation Respect.
“Driven by a deep belief that a more compassionate and respectful world is possible, my father has lived a cause driven life full of love and purpose,” Bethany Yarrow said. “He always believed, with his whole heart, that singing together could change the world. Please don’t stop believing in magic dragons. Hope dies when we stop believing, stop caring, and stop singing.”
Donna Mendell contributed.
