Lawrence Tibbett born 16 November 1896

Lawrence Mervil Tibbett (November 16, 1896 – July 15, 1960) was a famous American opera singer and recording artist who also performed as a film actor and radio personality. A baritone, he sang leading roles with the Metropolitan Opera in New York more than 600 times from 1923 to 1950. He performed diverse musical 
theatre roles, including Captain Hook in Peter Pan in a touring show. He was among the first operatic personalities to perform "popular" music.

Born Lawrence Mervil Tibbet (the extra "t" was added when he signed his first Metropolitan contract), he was raised in Los Angeles and started singing for money at an early age in church choirs and at funerals. Following his 1915 high school graduation he served in the US Merchant Marine during World War I, then returned home where he sang at silent movie theatres.

After a period of study in New York, he gave the first of his roughly 600 Metropolitan Opera performances in 1923 as the Herald in Richard Wagner's "Lohengrin". Tibbett saw his big break in 1925 when he was Ford in Giuseppe Verdi's "Falstaff" opposite Antonio Scotti; he was to assume continually larger roles over the years, among them the title leads of Verdi's "Rigoletto", "Simon Boccanegra", and "Falstaff", the bullfighter Escamillo from Georges Bizet's "Carmen", the evil police chief Scarpia of Puccini's "Tosca", both Silvio and Tonio in Leoncavallo's "I Pagliacci", the elder Germont from Verdi's "La Traviata", and the villain Iago of the same composer's "Otello".

                              

Tibbett made his first recordings for the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1926. In the early 1930s, Tibbett also appeared in movies. His Hollywood sojourn proved brief, although he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his first film, 
The Rogue Song, a 1930 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production with Laurel & Hardy, shot in two-color Technicolor (only a few minutes of footage of the film, as well as the complete soundtrack, is known to survive today).

He was also seen in "New Moon" (1930) with Grace Moore and 1935's "Metropolitan" while becoming a regular on the concert stage and on the radio with Packard automobile commercials and frequent appearances on "Your Hit Parade".

During the 1930s, Tibbett sang throughout the United States and Europe and was to achieve note in some more modern operas, giving the 1933 world premiere, in blackface, of Louis Gruenberg's "The Emperor Jones" and having success in Deems Taylor's "The King's Henchman" and Howard Hanson's "Merry Mount". The title lead of George Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess" was essentially written for his voice as the composer's specification for the role was a "coloured Lawrence Tibbett". Indeed, when RCA made the first recordings of the piece under Gershwin's supervision they featured Tibbett and Helen Jepson, not Todd Duncan and Anne Brown.

Apparently a rather rude and unpleasant man, this quality was only exacerbated by his steadily worsening fondness for drink, with multiple tales told of him onstage intoxicated, the entire stage reeking on the occasions when he was partnered with the alcoholic Swedish tenor Jussi Bjorling; in one such incident the Bulgarian soprano Ljuba Welitsch grew tired of his ways and repeatedly kicked him after "killing" him at the end of Act II of "Tosca", while another time he refused to allow a young Leonard Warren to sing Ford opposite his Falstaff, saying "I didn't want him doing to me what I did to Scotti".

Tibbett saw his voice damaged by alcohol and over-use and left the Metropolitan in 1950, though he was to have some later success as Captain Hook in "Peter Pan" and on Broadway in "Fanny". In later years Tibbett served as host of a radio show featuring recordings of operatic singers. He leavened matters with reminiscences of his own stage experiences.

Plagued by severe arthritis and years of drinking problems, he aged prematurely as his health worsened. He died on July 15, 1960, after hitting his head on a table during a fall in his apartment. 

The Time obituary said of him: "Tibbett had a big, bronze-like, dramatically eloquent voice that combined ringing power with remarkable agility ... he left behind not only the echoes of a great voice but the memory of a performer who could feel equally at home with high art and popular entertainment, suggesting that there is a magical link between the two." He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

(Edited from Wikipedia and Bob Hufford bio)

This clip is from "Metropolitan," the year 1935. It starred Mr. Tibbett, Virginia Bruce, Alice Brady and Cesar Romero. It was very well received, and apparently the 1st production by Daryl F. Zanuck for Twentieth Century Fox. It opened at Radio City Music Hall! 

Al Morgan born 14 November 1915

Al "Flying Fingers" Morgan (November 14, 1915 – November 18, 1989) was a popular nightclub singer, pianist and composer who is known for his hit recordings "Jealous Heart", "I'll Take Care Of Your Cares," and "The Place Where I Worship."

Albert Louis Morgan was born in Cincinnati and raised in nearby Ft. Thomas, Kentucky. Morgan's musical foundation started at the Ninth Street Baptist Church in his hometown. Morgan's mother’s plan was for him to be a preacher. His church sent him to Dennison University on a scholarship, but Morgan soon discovered that he was "put on this earth to play and sing, not to preach." As the back cover of his religious album, The Place Where I Worship states: "…until he was twenty-one, practically all of his musical experience was in the sacred field of music.

He then studied violin and voice at the Cincinnati Conservatory and received his master's degree from Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. His piano playing was self-taught. Some of his first shows were as a piano sideman in the big band years playing with Glen Miller and Harry James among others. After the Pearl Harbour attack, he served as a rear gunner on B-17s in the US Army Air Force during WWII. He spent considerable time in Europe putting on shows at American installations and base hospitals.

After his discharge he returned to Cincinnati. He conducted the staff band at WKRC and had several weekly radio shows. Morgan got his start in show business by playing on the boats that travel up and down the Ohio River near his home-town of Cincinnati. Morgan also bought his own night spot in Cincinnati, the Club Carasal. While working at the Club Carasal, Morgan decided that he would join the entertainment. He became so popular that he decided that he should go on the road.

In November 1946, he gave up his radio job, sold the Club Carasal, and headed for New York. He did a long stretch at Rogers Corner Theatre Lounge, a spot across the street from Madison Square Garden. Then he traveled to Chicago. He was booked in Chicago at Helsing's Vodvil Lounge at Sheridan and Montrose on the city’s north side. The manager booked him, sight-unseen, thinking he was a comedian. He didn’t laugh, however, when Morgan sat down at 

the piano and started playing. That led to The Al Morgan Show, Morgan's half-hour television show, backed by the Billy Chandler Trio, broadcasting from Helsing's. The show was on the DuMonte Television Network, from 1949 to 1951; one of the first shows to be syndicated. In 1952, Morgan was back in Cincinnati, broadcasting his show from WLW Television.

While playing in Wisconsin Morgan had the idea to make a big band arrangement of the Jenny Lou Carson song, "Jealous Heart". Rumour has it that Morgan first sang "Jealous Heart" as a part of a medley in his act. That song, recorded in Chicago and released on Universal in 1949, became a local hit. Decca Records in England was starting a new label called London Records and deal was struck to release "Jealous Heart" on London.

                             

"Jealous Heart" (a cover of the Jenny Lou Carson country song) was released in 1949 and was his biggest hit, said to have sold in excess of 12 million copies. Morgan performed at various theatres, churches, supper clubs and Las Vegas concert halls for over 40 years, and continued to perform until his death in 1989. 

He was one of the first musicians to have his own syndicated television show. He is best known for his flamboyant style of piano playing where he would raise his hands over his shoulders and flop them down on the keys, hitting all the correct notes, earning him the title, "Flying Fingers.

Morgan continued to record for the length of his career. Morgan recorded over 50 songs for London Records and recorded for most of the major labels including Columbia, Mercury, Decca and RCA subsidiary "X". Morgan's recordings for London were pressed internationally including England, Canada, Germany, Australia and South Africa. Later in his career Morgan recorded for smaller independent labels such as Crystal, and Jewel. In 1961 he had a nightly live radio show performing from 11:30 PM to 12, on WTAQ, broadcasting from LaGrange, Illinois.

In 1989, Morgan performed at the Olympic Theater in Cicero, Illinois for his video, In Concert at the Olympic Theatre on Memorial Day, May 28, 1989. The show ended with 3 songs all containing the word "jealous" and ending with "Jealous Heart." This could have been the medley that started his career, and the last recording that Morgan made. Morgan was performing at Noodles Restaurant when he died on Saturday, November 18, 1989 in Loyola’s McGaw Hospital in Maywood, Illinois. 

(Edited from Wikipedia)

Al continued to find an audience throughout his lengthy career, as this performance of Daddy's Little Girl, at age 76, proves.  Al achieved immediate fame with his massive hit Jealous Heart in 1949.  He went on to record an impressive number of singles and albums for various labels, and had his own television show.  Although usually associated with The Mills Brothers, Al's audiences expected to hear this favourite at his concerts.  Al recorded Daddy's Little Girl for RCA's label X.

Jimmy Fontana born 13 November 1934

Jimmy Fontana (13 November 1934 – 11 September 2013) was an Italian actor, composer and singer-songwriter.Two of his most famous songs are "Che sarà", performed also by José Feliciano with Ricchi e Poveri and "Il Mondo".

Born Enrico Sbriccoli in Camerino, Italy, after graduating from high school, he moved to Rome to study Economics. In his spare time, Fontana taught himself bass and attend local jazz venues. Eventually, he dedicated himself completely to music and adopted the stage name Jimmy Fontana. His surname was selected from a telephone directory, the name Jimmy, meanwhile, is not a coincidence. It is taken from the name of the saxophonist Jimmy Giuffre. Thus was born Jimmy Fontana.

In the early 1950s Jimmy Fontana became familiar with jazz standards as a singer in the group Flaminia Street Jazz Band, later forming his own jazz band, Fontana and his Trio, with piano, bass and drums. Around that time he met Leda, who would become his wife and with whom they would have four children, Luigi, Roberto, Andrea and Paola.

Although already having his own band, Jimmy Fontana wanted a solo career. To do this, he opted for Italian pop music popular in the early 1960s and managed to land a contract with Hollywood. His composition "Diavolo" (Devil) had a pretty good success, which, translated into Spanish and became "Diablo" reached third place at the Festival of Barcelona. With his song "Bevo" ("Drink"), in 1960, he won the Burlamacco Gold, a music competition in Viareggio. His first participation in the Festival of Sanremo came in 1961 with "Lady luna" ("Lady

moon"), written by Armando Trovajoli and Dino Verde.

Subsequently changing record label, Jimmy Fontana signed with RCA Italy and worked on the first 45 released on the label "Non te ne andare" ("Don't go") was released in 1963 and written by Gianni Meccia and Lilli Greek. Collaborating with Meccia both in singing and in writing, Jimmy Fontana soon found himself at the gates of success.  His early hits were soon to come including the title "Non Te Ne Andare" published in 1963. 

                               

In 1965, Fontana had his major success with "Il mondo" ("The world"), a song composed by Fontana and Carlo Pes, and arranged by Ennio Morricone, with lyrics by Gianni Meccia, which reached the top of the charts in Italy and other countries in Europe and charted in Latin America as well. 

The same year, he made his debut as an actor, appearing in two musicarelli, which are movies heavily featuring musical numbers, titled Viale della canzone ("Avenue of song") and 008 Operazione ritmo ("008 Operation rhythm").

In 1967 the song "La mia serenata" won the Disco per l'Estatewhich confirmed the talent and public popularity of the singer.  At the 1968 Cantagiro summer festival, Fontana sang a cover version of the Tom Jones hit "Delilah", titled "La nostra favola." The song reached 2nd place in the Italian hit parade.

In 1971, the song "Che sarà", composed by Fontana with lyrics by Franco Migliacci, was performed by José Feliciano with the Ricchi e Poveri group at that year's Sanremo Music Festival, winning 2nd prize. It eventually became one of the biggest pop music hits of the era in Italy and abroad. Somewhat disillusioned by the problems generated by "Che sarà" Jimmy Fontana decided to withdraw for a time from the music industry and moved to Macerata. Years passed and in 1979, he made a brilliant comeback with the song "Identikit". Encouraged by this success, Jimmy Fontana was again present at the Sanremo Festival, singing "Beguine".

A few years later he formed a new group called Superquattro. He continued appearing on TV shows and touring around Italy and abroad until his old age. He died peacefully at his home on September 11, 2013 in Rome, Lazio, Italy, a few months before his 79th birthday, while still planning concert tours.

Jimmy has released over 100 albums and has acted in several films and won best actor award at the Festival Of Barcelona.

(Info translated from Wikipedia & NRJ Paris)

Mort Shuman born 12 November 1936

Mort Shuman (12 November 1938 – 2 November 1991) was an American singer, pianist and songwriter, best known as co-writer of many 1960s rock and roll hits, including "Viva Las Vegas" He also wrote and sang many songs in French, such as "Le Lac Majeur", "Allo Papa Tango Charlie", "Sha Mi Sha", "Un Eté de Porcelaine", and "Brooklyn by the Sea" which became hits in France.

Brooklyn-born Mort Shuman inherited from his parents a passion for art and music. He studied philosophy at school, but despite being accepted at City College of New York, Shuman opted for a career in music and began writing songs. When he was barely 16, he met 31-year-old Doc Pomus, a singer of some repute around the spots on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village. Pomus was also a songwriter, and in him, Shuman found a soulmate. Pomus became a friend and mentor and the two began writing songs together despite the 15-year age differential between them.

Thanks to a series of chance encounters with a number of music professionals, the pair signed up with Hill and Range Songs, a music publisher that had already established a working relationship with Elvis Presley. From 1958 through the mid-'60s, Pomus and Shuman authored a great body of pop song hits including, "A Mess of Blues," "Little Sister," "Surrender," "Viva Las Vegas" and "His Latest Flame" for Presley; "You Are My Baby" for Ray Charles; "A Teenager in Love" for Dion; "Can't Get Used to Losing You" for Andy Williams; and "This Magic Moment," "Sweets for My Sweet" and perhaps the most memorable of them all, "Save the Last Dance for Me," for The Drifters.

Together, these songs sold more than 30 million records. Despite this success, Shuman left New York in the mid-'60s to enjoy a life of travel. Stopping for a time in London, he managed to write a series of hits for some of the top British acts, including "Little Children" for Billy J. Kramer, "She La La La Lee" for the Small Faces and "Here I Go Again" for The Hollies.

During a visit to Paris, he discovered one of France's great treasures, the poet-singer, Jacques Brel. Returning to America, Shuman brought a bundle of Brel's records with him, translated 30 of them into English and created the off-Broadway musical, "Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris." 
Some of the songs from the show were subsequently recorded by Scott Walker, including "Jackie" and "Mathilde". Shuman appeared in both the stage revue and the 1975 film adaptation. Ultimately, the show became one of the three longest-running off-Broadway musicals in history.

The show was also presented in major cities in the United States, Canada and throughout the world. The score of the show using the Shuman lyrics spawned recordings by several important name artists. David Bowie performed on the song "Amsterdam" and both Dion and Dionne Warwick recorded "If We Only Have Love," perhaps the best-known song from the show.

                               

Having fallen in love with Paris, Shuman later returned there to live and to embark on a new career, that of recording artist. Eventually, he became one of France's most popular personalities, both as performer and as songwriter. He has six gold albums and countless

hits to his credit, including "Le Lac Majeure", which became one of the most successful singles ever to be issued in France. He also did many collaborations with the Israeli singer Mike Brant, and composed film scores, often French movies, including A Day at the Beach (1970), Romance of a Horsethief (1971), Black Thursday (1974), À nous les petites Anglaises (1976), Monsieur Papa (1977) and The More It Goes, the Less It Goes (1977).

After 15 years of unbroken success in France, Shuman moved to London to pursue his English language songwriting and recording career. Shortly before his death, Atlantic Records released "Distant Drum," his debut album for the label. Almost until his death, Shuman was writing songs, including hits for Johnny Hallyday in France. He also was adding the finishing touches to the score for a stage musical, "Save the Last Dance for Me," which was to be launched on London's West End.

Shuman died November 2, 1991 after a courageous fight against cancer, leaving his wife, Maria-Pia and their four daughters, Maria-Cella, Barbara, Maria-Pia and Eva-Maria. Doc Pomus had died in March of the same year.

Shuman was named one of the 2010 recipients of the Ahmet Ertegun Award from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He joined his early collaborator Doc Pomus, who was inducted in 1992. 

(Edited from Songwriters Hall Of Fame & Wikipedia)

Hank Garland born 11 November 1930

Walter Louis Garland (11 November 1930 – 27 December 2004) professionally Hank Garland, was an American guitarist and songwriter. He started as a country musician, played rock and roll as it became popular in the 1950s, and released a jazz album in 1960. His career was cut short when a car accident in 1961 left him unable to perform

Born in Cowpens, South Carolina, Garland began playing guitar at the age of six. He appeared on local radio shows at 12 and was discovered at 14 at a South Carolina record store. He moved to Nashville at age 16, staying in Ma Upchurch's boarding house, where he roomed with Bob Moore and Dale Potter. At age 18, he recorded his million-selling hit "Sugarfoot Rag". He appeared on the Jubilee program with Grady Martin's band and on The Eddy Arnold Show. Here's one of his many singles. This one's from 1953.

                              

Garland is perhaps best known for his Nashville studio work with Elvis Presley from 1958 to 1961 which produced such rock hits as: "I Need Your Love Tonight", "A Big Hunk o' Love", " I'm Coming Home", "I Got Stung", "A Fool Such As I", "Stuck on You", "Little Sister", "(Marie's The Name) His Latest Flame", and "I Feel So Bad". 

He worked with many country music rock and roll musicians of the late 1950s and early 1960s, such as Patsy Cline, Brenda Lee, Mel Tillis, Marty Robbins, The Everly Brothers, Boots Randolph, Roy Orbison, Conway Twitty, and Moon Mullican.

Garland's guitar drove such classic recordings as Little Jimmy Dickens' "I Got a Hole in My Pocket"; Benny Joy's "Bundle of Love" and "I'm Gonna Move"; Jimmy Loyd's (recorded under pseudonym of (Jimmie Logsdon) "You're Gone Baby" and "I've Got a Rocket in My Pocket"; Lefty Frizzell's "You're Humbuggin' Me"; Simon Crum's "Stand Up, Sit Down, Shut Your Mouth"; and Johnnie Strickland's (1935-1994) "She's Mine"; plus, seasonal staples "Jingle Bell Rock" with Bobby Helms, and Brenda Lee's seasonal "Rockin' Around the Christmas 

Tree". Don Gibson's "Sweet Sweet Girl" and "Don't Tell Me Your Troubles"; Patsy Cline's "Let the Teardrops Fall"; Ronnie Hawkins' "Jambalaya"; and Faron Young's "Alone with You" spotlighted Garland's guitar work.

He played with George Shearing and Charlie Parker in New York and went on to record Jazz Winds from a New Direction with Gary Burton on vibraphone, Joe Benjamin on double bass, and Joe Morello on drums. At the request of Gibson Guitar company president Ted McCarty, Garland and guitarist Billy Byrd influenced the design of the Byrdland guitar, which derived from the Gibson L-5, having a slimmer body and shorter scale for ease of playing.

Hank Garland's professional career spanned only 15 years, less than a third of his life. In 1961, at the age of 30, his dream of becoming "the best guitar player in the world" was shattered in a violent auto accident. His 1959 Chevy Nomad station wagon crashed near Springfield, Tennessee, throwing Garland from the car and leaving him in a coma for months. After lingering near death, he began to recover, but the price paid was devastatingly high. Severe brain damage claimed most of his motor functions and co-ordination, and his dreams of greater music to come seemed to have evaporated. He recovered with the help of his wife, Evelyn and two daughters,

The loss of ability to play would have sent most guitarists into a deep depression, but Hank decided to fight back. He practiced for two years after the accident, studying and working scales and arpeggios while fighting to regain control over his instrument. After two more years he'd gotten some of his command back, but not sufficiently to return to the studios. His advice to similarly afflicted guitarists is succinct: "Don't give up".

This wasn't the-end of the Hank Garland legend. It would be two, years after the accident until he regained any command of the instrument, and 13 more before he returned to Nashville for a brief appearance at the 1976 Fan Fair Reunion Show - where his rendition of his 1949 composition "Sugarfoot Rag" left moist eyes among performers and audience members. 

They could see and hear that while Hank Garland might not be returning to the Nashville studios, he had certainly returned from one of the most uncertain and harrowing journeys any musician could ever make.

Sadly the second half of his life was spent in obscurity and dogged by ill-health. He spent his final years battling record companies for royalties.

Hank Garland did live a long life, though, dying in 2004 of a staph infection at Orange Park Medical Centre, at the age of 74, according to his brother, Billy Garland.

 (Edited from Wikipedia & Wayback Machine)

Mary Travers born 9 November 1936

Mary 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.  A contralto, Travers released five solo albums in addition to her work with Peter, Paul and Mary.

Mary Allin Travers was born in Louisville, Kentucky, the daughter of journalists who moved the family to Manhattan's bohemian Greenwich Village. She quickly became enamoured with folk performers like the Weavers, and was soon performing with Pete Seeger, a founding member of the Weavers who lived in the same building as the Travers family.

With a group called the Song Swappers, Travers backed Seeger on one album and two shows at Carnegie Hall. She also appeared (as one of a group of folk singers) in a short-lived 1958 Broadway show called The Next President, starring comedian Mort Sahl.

It wasn't until she met up with Yarrow and Stookey that Travers would taste success on her own. Yarrow was managed by Albert B. Grossman, who later worked in the same capacity for Bob Dylan. The budding trio, boosted by the arrangements of Milt Okun, spent seven months rehearsing in her Greenwich Village apartment before their 1961 public debut at the Bitter End.

Their beatnik look - a tall blonde flanked by a pair of goateed guitarists - was a part of their initial appeal. The trio mingled their music with liberal politics, both onstage and off.  They were early champions of Dylan and performed his Blowin' in the Wind at the August 1963 March on Washington. And they were vehement in their opposition to the Vietnam War, managing to stay true to their

 liberal beliefs while creating music that resonated in the American mainstream.

The group collected five Grammy Awards for their three-part harmony on their most enduring songs. At one point in 1963, three of their albums were in the top six Billboard best-selling LPs as they became the biggest stars of the folk revival movement. It was heady stuff for a trio that had formed in the early 1960s in Greenwich Village, running through simple tunes like Mary Had a Little Lamb.

                               

Their debut album came out in 1962, and immediately scored a pair of hits with their versions of If I Had a Hammer and Lemon Tree. The former won them Grammys for best folk recording, and best performance by a vocal group. Their next album, Moving, included the hit tale of innocence lost, "Puff, The Magic Dragon", which reached No. 2 on the U.S. charts. 

Mary with Bob Dylan

The trio's third album, In the Wind, featured three songs by the 22-year-old Bob Dylan. "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" and "Blowin' in the Wind" reached the U.S. top 10, bringing Dylan's material to a massive audience; the latter shipped 300,000 copies during one two-week period.

With the advent of the Beatles and Dylan's switch to electric guitar, the folk boom disappeared. Travers expressed disdain for folk-rock. But the trio continued their success, scoring with the tongue-in-cheek single I Dig Rock and Roll Music, a gentle parody of the Mamas and the Papas, in 1967 and the John Denver-penned

Leaving on a Jet Plane two years later.

In 1969, the group earned their final Grammy for Peter, Paul and Mommy, which won for best children's album. They disbanded in 1971, launching solo careers - Travers released five albums - that never achieved the heights of their collaborations. Mary (1971), Morning Glory (1972), All My Choices (1973), Circles (1974) and It's in Everyone of Us (1978).

Over the years they enjoyed several reunions, including a performance at a 1978 anti-nuclear benefit organized by Yarrow and a 35th anniversary album, Lifelines, with fellow folkies Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Dave Van Ronk and Seeger. 

They remained politically active as well, performing at the 1995 anniversary of the Kent State shootings and performing for California strawberry pickers.

On 7 December 2004 Travers disclosed that she was receiving chemotherapy for a rare form of leukemia, but expected to make a full recovery and in 2005, she had undergone a successful bone marrow transplant and was able to return to performing after that. But by mid-2009, her condition had worsened again. She died on September 16, 2009, at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut, from complications related to the marrow transplant and other treatments. She was 72 years old.

Travers was married four times. Her first brief union, to John Filler, produced her elder daughter, Erika, in 1960. In 1963, she married Barry Feinstein. Her younger daughter, Alicia, was born in 1966, and the couple divorced the following year. In the 1970s, she was married to Gerald Taylor. In 1991, she married restaurateur Ethan Robbins; Travers lived with Robbins in the small town of Redding, Connecticut, for the remainder of her life.

(Edited from Wikipedia & The Telegraph)

Here's a clip of Mary Travers from the Morecombe and Wise Show (1972 BBC)  The laughter at the start was for a comedy skit which preceded the song.