Who Is Pete Seeger? Age, Biography, and Wiki
Born on May 3, 1919, in Patterson, New York, Pete Seeger is best remembered as a legendary folk singer and passionate social activist who fiercely advocated for civil rights, environmental issues, and peace. He lived an extraordinary life, passing away on January 27, 2014, at the age of 94. Despite his death, Seeger's influence continues to resonate through his music and activism, embodying values of social justice and community.
| Occupation | Environmentalist |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | May 3, 1919 |
| Age | 94 Years |
| Birth Place | New York City, U.S. |
| Horoscope | Taurus |
| Country | U.S |
| Date of death | 27 January, 2014 |
| Died Place | N/A |
Popularity
Pete Seeger's Popularity over time
Height, Weight & Measurements
Pete Seeger was known for his lean physique. While exact measurements are not commonly documented, he stood approximately 6 feet tall and maintained a weight that reflected his active lifestyle. Throughout his life, he was often seen with his signature banjo or guitar, always ready to engage with audiences.
In 1936, at the age of 17, Pete Seeger joined the Young Communist League (YCL), then at the height of its influence. In 1942, he joined the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), but left in 1949.
Family, Dating & Relationship Status
Pete Seeger was married to Toshi Aline Ohta for nearly 70 years, from 1943 until her passing in 2013. The couple had three children together: Daniel, Mika, and Tara Seeger. His family life was deeply intertwined with his musical and activist career, with many of his children and grandchildren also carrying on his legacy in music and activism.
Charles established the first musicology curriculum in the United States at the University of California, Berkeley in the 1910s. He also helped organize the American Musicological Society and was a key founder of the academic discipline of ethnomusicology.
Peter's mother, Constance de Clyver Seeger (née Edson), raised in Tunisia and trained at the Paris Conservatory of Music, was a concert violinist and later a teacher at the Juilliard School.
Net Worth and Salary
At the time of his passing, Pete Seeger's net worth was estimated to be around $1 million. His income primarily derived from his music career, including album sales, public performances, and royalties. Although not a millionaire by mainstream standards, his wealth was largely measured in the impact he left on society and culture rather than monetary value.
Seeger appears in the 1997 documentary film An Act of Conscience, which was filmed between 1988 and 1995.
In the film, Seeger joins a group of demonstrators protesting in support of war tax resisters Randy Kehler and Betsy Corner, whose home was seized by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) after the couple openly refused to pay their federal income taxes as a protest against war and military spending.
Career, Business, and Investments
Seeger's music career began in the 1940s and quickly blossomed. He was a member of several influential groups, including The Almanac Singers and Peter, Paul and Mary. His most famous songs, like "If I Had a Hammer" and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," became anthems for social movements. Beyond music, he was active in various humanitarian causes, including anti-war protests and environmental campaigns, reflecting a life wholly dedicated to activism.
To earn money during the blacklist period of the late 1950s and early 1960s, Seeger worked gigs as a music teacher in schools and summer camps, and traveled the college campus circuit. He also recorded as many as five albums a year for Moe Asch's Folkways Records label.
As the nuclear disarmament movement picked up steam in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Seeger's anti-war songs, such as "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" (co-written with Joe Hickerson), "Turn! Turn! Turn!" adapted from the Book of Ecclesiastes, and "The Bells of Rhymney" by the Welsh poet Idris Davies (1957), gained wide currency.
Seeger was the first person to make a studio recording of "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream" in 1956. Seeger also was closely associated with the Civil Rights Movement and in 1963 helped organize a landmark Carnegie Hall concert, featuring the youthful Freedom Singers, as a benefit for the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee.
This event, and Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in August of that same year, brought the civil rights anthem "We Shall Overcome" to wide audiences. He sang it on the 50-mile walk from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, along with 1,000 other marchers.
By this time, Seeger was a senior figure in the 1960s folk revival centered in Greenwich Village, as a longtime columnist in Sing Out!, the successor to the People's Songs Bulletin, and as a founder of the topical Broadside magazine.
To describe the new crop of politically committed folk singers, he coined the phrase "Woody's children", alluding to his associate and traveling companion, Woody Guthrie, who by this time had become a legendary figure.
This urban folk-revival movement, a continuation of the activist tradition of the 1930s and 1940s and of People's Songs, used adaptations of traditional tunes and lyrics to effect social change, a practice that goes back to the Industrial Workers of the World or Wobblies' Little Red Song Book, compiled by Swedish-born union organizer Joe Hill (1879
–1915) (the Little Red Song Book had been a favorite of Woody Guthrie, who was known to carry it around).
Social Network
Pete Seeger was known for his ability to engage with various communities and was often seen collaborating with other musicians and activists. His legacy lives on through social media, where fans and new generations share his messages of peace and justice. While he did not utilize platforms like Facebook or Twitter during his lifetime, his music and ideals have found a home in online gatherings advocating for social change.
Seeger enrolled at Harvard College on a partial scholarship, but as he became increasingly involved with politics and folk music, his grades suffered and he lost his scholarship. He dropped out of college in 1938. He dreamed of a career in journalism and took courses in art as well.
His first musical gig was leading students in folk singing at the Dalton School, where his aunt was principal.
He polished his performance skills during a summer stint of touring New York state with the Vagabond Puppeteers (Jerry Oberwager, 22; Mary Wallace, 22; and Harriet Holtzman, 23), a traveling puppet theater "inspired by rural education campaigns of post-revolutionary Mexico". One of their shows coincided with a strike by dairy farmers.
The group reprised its act in October in New York City. An October 2, 1939 Daily Worker article reported on the Puppeteers' six-week tour this way:
Education
Seeger attended Harvard University but dropped out after two years, opting instead to pursue music and activism. His education continued outside traditional institutions, where he learned from folk traditions, political movements, and by engaging with diverse communities, showcasing his belief in lifelong learning.
Seeger was one of the folk singers responsible for popularizing the spiritual "We Shall Overcome" (also recorded by Joan Baez and many other singer-activists), which became the acknowledged anthem of the civil rights movement, soon after folk singer and activist Guy Carawan introduced it at the founding meeting of the Student Nonviolent Coordinatin
g Committee (SNCC) in 1960.
In the PBS American Masters episode "Pete Seeger: The Power of Song", Seeger said it was he who changed the lyric from the traditional "We will overcome" to the more singable "We shall overcome".
