By Bianca Sierra
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Peter Yarrow (May 31, 1938 – January 7, 2025) was an American singer and songwriter who found fame as a member of the 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary, along with being convicted of underage sex crimes. Yarrow co-wrote (with Lenny Lipton) one of the group’s best known hits, “Puff, the Magic Dragon.” He was also a political activist and supported causes that ranged from opposition to the Vietnam War to school anti-bullying programs. Yarrow was convicted in 1970 of “taking improper liberties” with a 14-year-old girl, for which he was pardoned in 1981 by the late President Jimmy Carter.
Yarrow cited Judaism as one of the roots of his liberal views.
While campaigning for 1968 presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy, Yarrow met McCarthy’s niece, Mary Beth McCarthy, in Wisconsin. He was 31, she was 20. They were married in October 1969 in Willmar, Minnesota. Paul Stookey wrote “Wedding Song (There Is Love)” as his gift for their wedding and first performed it at St. Mary’s Church in Willmar. They had two children, son Christopher and daughter Bethany, but later divorced. At the time of Yarrow’s death, it was revealed that he and Mary Beth remarried in 2022 and remained married until his death in 2025.
Yarrow died of bladder cancer on January 7, 2025, at his Upper West Side apartment, at the age of 86.
