Peter Yarrow, Folk Legend and 'Puff the Magic Dragon' Creator, Dies at 86
Peter Yarrow, a prominent member of the folk trio Peter, Paul, and Mary and co-writer of "Puff the Magic Dragon," has died at age 86 in New York after a four-year battle with bladder cancer.
Peter Yarrow performing with acoustic guitar
Photo Credit: Peter Yarrow by Marsha Miller / LBJ Library
As part of Peter, Paul, and Mary, Yarrow helped shape the American folk music scene throughout the 1960s, championing civil rights and anti-war causes through their music. The trio achieved remarkable success, securing six Billboard Top 10 singles, two No. 1 albums, and five Grammy Awards.
Notable achievements include their influential covers of Bob Dylan's works, particularly "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" and "Blowin' in the Wind." The group performed the latter at the historic 1963 March on Washington, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech.
Born in 1938 in New York, Yarrow discovered his passion for folk music while studying psychology at Cornell University. After graduating in 1959, he established himself in Greenwich Village's music scene before forming the legendary trio with Noel Paul Stookey and Mary Travers.
After an eight-year break, the group reunited in 1978 for the "Survival Sunday" anti-nuclear-power concert in Los Angeles, organized by Yarrow himself. They continued performing together until Travers' death in 2009, after which Yarrow and Stookey performed both individually and as a duo.
Yarrow's 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 truly embodied the spirit of his lyrics.
His influence extended beyond his own music, notably playing a pivotal role in Bob Dylan's historic transition to electric guitar at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, a moment recently depicted in the 2024 Dylan biopic "A Complete Unknown."