Sad news today, about the death of Mary Travers (of Peter, Paul and Mary fame). A blood cancer was the culprit – in this case, leukemia, with which Mary had been living for some years now.From an MSNBC.com news article:
“Travers had undergone a successful bone marrow transplant to treat her leukemia and was able to return to performing after that.
‘It was like a miracle,’ Travers told The Associated Press in 2006. ‘I’m just feeling fabulous. What's incredible is someone has given your life back. I’m out in the garden today. This time last year I was looking out a window at a hospital.’ She also said she told the marrow donor ‘how incredibly grateful I was.’
But by mid-2009, [Peter] Yarrow told WTOP radio in Washington that her condition had worsened again and he thought she would no longer be able to perform.”
The last time I saw the trio in concert was a couple years ago, at the Great Auditorium in Ocean Grove, here in New Jersey. I suppose it was not long after her transplant. Mary leaned heavily on a cane, but as she opened her mouth to sing, she was a force of nature.
She’s leaving. Not on a jet plane (would that it were so), but on a far longer journey.
Mary’s powerful voice for peace, justice, love, hope – and, yes, faith – will be missed.
Go with God, Troubadour.
