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Legendary Folk Singer, Activist Pete Seeger Dies At 94

WESTCHESTER, N.Y. -- Legendary singer/songwriter and political activist and conservationist Pete Seeger, died Monday. He was 94 and lived in upstate Beacon.

Legendary singer/songwriter and activist Pete Seeger died Monday in New York City.

Legendary singer/songwriter and activist Pete Seeger died Monday in New York City.

Photo Credit: Manhattanville College

According to to a report by the New York Times early Tuesday, Seeger's death was confirmed by his grandson, Kitama Cahill Jackson, who said he died of natural causes at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

Seeger was internationally known as the author or co-author of folk song classics such as “Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” “If I Had a Hammer,” and “Turn, Turn, Turn.”  Locally, he was involved in the environmental organization Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, which he co-founded in 1966.

The longtime civil rights activist appeared in concert at Peekskill's Paramount Theater in September 2013. His activist roots in Westchester and Putnam counties were deep.

A report by the WMAC Noertheast Public Radio last year, referred to a press clipping from The Poughkeepsie Journal in 1949, when Seeger performed at the Poughkeepsie Day School in a concert to benefit Peoples Songs Inc., an organization he co-founded in 1945 to use folk music for social change. 

The Peekskill Riots occurred later in the year when.an announced concert featuring Paul Robeson, an African-American singer known for his civil rights activism, was to appear. Seeger was there.

Seeger also appeared in Westchester at Manhattanville College in September  2013 in a forum on weiring and social justice.

Seeger's wife of nearly 70 years, Toshi, died in 2013, days before the couple’s 70th anniversary.

Survivors include his son, Daniel; his daughters, Mika and Tinya; a half-sister, Peggy; and six grandchildren, including the musician Tao Rodriguez-Seeger.

 

 

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