Peter Yarrow, what caused his death? Iconic member of the 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary died at 86 years old

Farewell to Peter Yarrow: the Peter of the 1960s trio Peter, Paul and Mary passed away today at his home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan after a four-year battle with cancer.

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His life and career

The singer and songwriter of the famous folk group, who, like Joan Baez, contributed to Bob Dylan's success, was 86 years old. Among Yarrow's most famous recordings, with his tenor voice alongside baritone Paul Stookey and contralto Mary Travers, are Puff the Magic Dragon (Billboard number 2), Day Is Done, and The Great Mandala. A New Yorker, the son of a lawyer, Yarrow began playing guitar in college and after graduation frequented the folk scene of Greenwich Village clubs: "I wanted to make music that created a sense of community," he later explained. In 1960, he was invited to sing at the Newport festival, where he met Albert Grossman, who would later become his manager and who introduced him to Mary, who had appeared in various Village venues alongside Pete Seeger. The duo became a trio with the addition of Noel Paul Stookey: using the latter's 'middle name,' the group took on a biblically flavored name. The music of Peter, Paul and Mary was strongly associated with the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements.

Like many folk groups of the time featured in the biopic A Complete Unknown about Bob Dylan, currently in theaters, the trio was known for its progressive political stances as much as its music. In August 1963, the three participated in the March on Washington where Martin Luther King delivered the famous 'I Have a Dream' speech. Performing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Yarrow, Stookey, and Travers sang Dylan's Blowin' in the Wind, which also became an anthem of the civil rights marches. Peter, Paul and Mary had recorded the cover two months earlier, selling 300,000 copies in the first week. Their version of another Dylan song, Don't Think Twice, It's All Right, also entered the Billboard Top 10, helping to push Dylan's The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan album into the top 30 charts. During their peak success years, Peter, Paul and Mary entered the Billboard Top 40 twelve times; six of these songs reached the Top 10, including the cover of John Denver's Leavin' on a Jet Plane, which hit number one. The trio recorded songs and held concerts to support liberal presidential candidates Eugene McCarthy in 1968 and George McGovern in 1972. Peter Yarrow's lyrics often highlighted the group's political engagement: The Great Mandala from 1967 told the story of a hunger-striking anti-war protester, while Day Is Done from 1969, dedicated to his son, suggested that the new generation would create a fairer world.

This song, like Puff the Magic Dragon, also became a children's song. Decades later, Yarrow turned both into illustrated children's books, while Puff inspired a TV special popular enough to generate two sequels.

The allegations

In 1970, he was convicted and served three months in prison for 'taking indecent liberties with a minor'. The then-fourteen-year-old Barbara Winter reported that when she went to his hotel room in Washington seeking for an autograph, he opened the door naked and forced her to touch him inappropriately. Yarrow was granted a presidential pardon by Jimmy Carter in January 1981. Four years ago, Yarrow was diagnosed with bladder cancer.

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