Peter, Paul and Mary's 'Peter' Has Died at 86

Peter Yarrow—the singer-songwriter best known as one-third of the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary—has died at age 86. Yarrow, who also co-wrote the group's most enduring song, "Puff the Magic Dragon," died Tuesday in New York, said publicist Ken Sunshine. Yarrow had been battling bladder cancer for the past four years, per the AP. During an incredible run of success spanning the 1960s, Yarrow, Noel Paul Stookey, and Mary Travers released six Billboard Top 10 singles and two No. 1 albums, and won five Grammys.

They also brought early exposure to Bob Dylan by turning two of his songs, "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" and "Blowin' in the Wind," into Billboard Top 10 hits as they helped lead an American renaissance in folk music. They performed "Blowin' in the Wind" at the 1963 March on Washington at which the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. After an eight-year hiatus, the trio reunited in 1978 for an anti-nuclear-power concert Yarrow organized in Los Angeles. They would remain together until Travers' death in 2009. Upon her passing, Yarrow and Stookey, now 87, continued to perform both separately and together. (Read other notable obituaries.)