Mary Travers, of Peter, Paul & Mary, has died

1963 album cover (Warner Bros.)

Mary Travers, of the legendary folk trio Peter, Paul & Mary, has died at the age of 72.

According to the band’s publicist, Travers’ died at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut earlier today, AP reports.   Early reports listed her age as 62. Travers had been battling leukemia in recent years.

Travers’ career has crossed paths with Bob Dylan’s many times since the early 1960’s. Peter, Paul & Mary was a folk trio formed by Dylan’s manager, Albert Grossman. Their commercial version of Dylan’s “Blowin’ In The Wind” catapulted the song, the songwriter, and the trio into the mainstream.  Dylan wrote the liner notes to the 1963 album, “In The Wind”. Peter, Paul & Mary continued to record Dylan’s songs, including “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” and “Too Much Of Nothing".

Peter, Paul & Mary appeared at the1963  March On Washington, along with Dylan, Joan Baez, and others. AP reports that the trio performed “Blowin’ In The Wind”, but may have only performed “If I Had A Hammer”. Peter, Paul & Mary did perform “Blowin’ In The Wind” at another March On Washington, in 1971.

In 1975, Travers hosted her own radio program. Bob Dylan, promoting "The Basement Tapes", was her first guest. When Travers mentioned people enjoying Dylan’s recent album, “Blood On The Tracks”, Dylan famously replied that he didn’t understand people enjoying that kind of pain.

When Dylan appeared at Live Aid in 1985, he was expected to perform with Peter, Paul & Mary, but surprised everyone by appearing with Rolling Stones guitarists Keith Richards and Ron Wood instead. The next year, possibly to make it up to the trio, Dylan performed “Blowin’ In The Wind” with Stevie Wonder and Peter, Paul & Mary, at a Martin Luther King tribute.