Pete Seeger always seemed old. But his spirit never seemed to lapse. He was an old man in videos I’ve seen of him from 1960s, and even older 50 years later. I met him at Clearwater at the Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace booth in 2007 and heard him perform live. An amazingly prolific folk singer, he also was the Hudson River’s strongest advocate for the arts and environment.

I knew his life wasn’t going to be long after the death of his wife, Toshi. He had been on and off sick in recent month. He was very old, but never-less the news had to make me cry a bit. I knew as soon as I heard his name on the BBC overnight radio around 3 AM last night, what had happened.

I was really surprised to learn that he was a generation older then Tom Paxton, another great folk singer. Tom Paxton was born in 1937, while Seeger was born well prior to World War II, during 1920s. Tom Paxton was interviewed on the radio about Mr. Seeger.

Pretty sad.