Mary Allin Travers (November 9, 1936 – September 16, 2009) was an American singer-songwriter and member of the folk music group Peter, Paul and Mary, along with Peter Yarrow and Paul Stookey. Peter, Paul and Mary was one of the most successful folk music groups of the 1960s. Unlike most folk musicians of the early 1960s who were a part of the burgeoning music scene in New York City\'s Greenwich Village, Travers grew up there. A contralto, Travers released five solo albums in addition to her work with Peter, Paul and Mary.\n', '

Mary Travers was born in Louisville, Kentucky, to Robert Travers and Virginia Coigney, both journalists and active organizers of The Newspaper Guild, a trade union. \n', 'In 1938, the family moved to Greenwich Village in New York City. Mary attended the progressive Little Red School House, where she met musical icons like Pete Seeger and Paul Robeson. Robeson sang her lullabies. Travers did not graduate from high school; she left school in the 11th grade to become a member of the Song Swappers folk group.\n', '\n', '

The Song Swappers sang backup for Pete Seeger on four reissue albums in 1955, when Folkways Records reissued a collection of Seeger\'s pro-union folk songs, "Talking Union". Travers regarded her singing as a hobby and was shy about it, but was encouraged by fellow musicians. She also was in the cast of the Broadway show The Next President.\n', '

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