Peter Yarrow, a founding member of the influential folk trio Peter, Paul, and Mary, passed away at age 86 in New York after a four-year battle with bladder cancer. As confirmed by publicist Ken Sunshine, Yarrow died on Tuesday.

Yarrow co-wrote the legendary hit "Puff the Magic Dragon" and was instrumental in the folk music movement of the 1960s. With Peter, Paul, and Mary, he achieved remarkable success, including:

• Six Billboard Top 10 singles
• Two No. 1 albums
• Five Grammy Awards
• Landmark performances, including the 1963 March on Washington

The trio played a crucial role in bringing Bob Dylan's music to mainstream audiences, with successful covers of "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" and "Blowin' in the Wind." Yarrow notably influenced Dylan's historic electric guitar transition at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, a moment recently depicted in the 2024 biopic "A Complete Unknown."

Born in 1938 in New York, Yarrow graduated from Cornell University in 1959 with a psychology degree. He discovered his passion for folk music while teaching American folklore, leading him to Greenwich Village's music scene where he met future bandmates Noel Paul Stookey and Mary Travers.

After the group's initial split, Yarrow organized their reunion in 1978 for the "Survival Sunday" anti-nuclear-power concert. The trio continued performing until Travers' death in 2009, after which Yarrow and Stookey continued both solo and collaborative performances.

His daughter Bethany remembered him as "generous, creative, passionate, playful, and wise," noting that while the world knew him as an iconic folk activist, the man behind the legend embodied all the qualities his lyrics suggested.

[Original image credits maintained as provided]

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