New York, New York - Musician Peter Yarrow – one-third of the beloved folk trio Peter, Paul, and Mary, whose anthems epitomized the 1960s protest movement – died Tuesday in New York. He was 86 years old.

His longtime publicist told AFP in a statement that Yarrow, the songwriter behind hits like Puff the Magic Dragon, had been battling bladder cancer for four years.

"Our fearless dragon is tired and has entered the last chapter of his magnificent life," Yarrow's daughter Bethany said in the statement.

"The world knows Peter Yarrow the iconic folk activist, but the human being behind the legend is every bit as generous, creative, passionate, playful, and wise as his lyrics suggest," she continued. "He always believed, with his whole heart, that singing together could change the world."

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Yarrow and his bandmates Mary Travers and Noel "Paul" Stookey burst onto the American folk music scene in 1961 with an influential style punctuated by rich three-part harmonies and progressive activist politics.

Born May 31, 1938, in Manhattan to Jewish immigrants from Ukraine, Yarrow studied painting before turning to singing and guitar as a student at Cornell University. After graduating he moved to New York and became a regular on Greenwich Village's burgeoning folk scene.

The band blended folk roots and commercial success: their self-titled 1962 debut reigned over the US charts and sold more than two million copies.

Their rendition of Blowin' in the Wind became a popular interpretation of fellow folk singer Bob Dylan's anti-war anthem; Peter, Paul, and Mary performed the song at the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington, cementing its place in the folk activist canon.

Their version of the progressive protest song If I Had a Hammer – written by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays – earned the trio two of their five Grammy wins. Their other hits included Day Is Done and The Great Mandala. The band also covered John Denver's Leavin' on a Jet Plane to chart-topping success.

But they broke up in 1970, shortly after the song's release, partly to pursue solo work and partly because Yarrow was accused of making sexual advances toward a 14-year-old girl who came to his dressing room while seeking an autograph with her teenage sister.

Yarrow served three months of a prison sentence after pleading guilty to taking "indecent liberties" with the child.

The artist was controversially pardoned in 1981 by then-president Jimmy Carter.

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The incident trailed him, however: in 2019, as the #MeToo movement gained traction, he was due to perform at a New York arts festival, but the set was canceled due to protests.

In a statement at the time, Yarrow voiced remorse: "I do not seek to minimize or excuse what I have done, and I cannot adequately express my apologies and sorrow for the pain and injury I have caused."

Neither he nor his bandmates achieved the fame as solo artists as they did together and reunited for one-off shows before touring regularly throughout the late 20th century until Travers was diagnosed with cancer, from which she eventually died.

The group played their final performance together in May 2009 in New Jersey.

In a statement, the last living bandmate, Stookey, called Yarrow his "creative, irrepressible, spontaneous and musical younger brother – yet at the same time, I grew to be grateful for, and to love, the mature-beyond-his-years wisdom and inspiring guidance he shared with me like an older brother."

"Politically astute and emotionally vulnerable, perhaps Peter was both of the brothers I never had," Stookey said. "I shall deeply miss both of him."