Obit: Penny Seeger (1943-1993)

Subject: Obit: Penny Seeger
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 04 Feb 14 - 11:50 AM

Speaking with some friends following all the obits and tributes to Pete Seeger,the subject of half siblings Mike, Peggy, Penny and Barbara came up. Penny was married for a number of years to John Cohen and I know that she passed away at a young age. I was asked in what year that was.
Sadly I was unable to answer and am unable to find any references. Is anyone here able to fill in the date and details? I assume that Barbara still survives.

Thankyou in advance

Hootenanny

Subject: RE: Obit: Penny Seeger
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Feb 14 - 12:49 PM

From what I can determine, the place and date of Penelope (Penny) Seeger's death are unknown. She married John Cohen in 1965. Can't find anything after that.

Subject: RE: Obit: Penny Seeger
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Feb 14 - 12:50 PM

Allan, my first time through I read Peggy too.

Subject: RE: Obit: Penny Seeger
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 04 Feb 14 - 12:51 PM

Allan C: Yes I know this to be a fact. The children of Charles and Ruth Crawford Seeger were Mike, Peggy, Penny and Barbara. I knew Penny when she and John lived in England briefly and also after they separated and Penny and brother Mike came to the Singer's Club in London (which sister Peggy ran along with her husband Ewan).
I am sure that someone on Mudcat will know the answer

Regarding Newspapers and accuracy? Well sometimes. Your suspicion is wrong!

Hoot

Subject: RE: Obit: Penny Seeger
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 04 Feb 14 - 12:57 PM

Allan C. O.K Allan seems like the above postings came in while I was composing my last one.

Thanks for taking the time to reply everyone.

I just don't understand why it is so difficult to find.

Hopefully Mary Kate will come up with the answer.

Hoot

Subject: RE: Obit: Penny Seeger
From: Mik2
Date: 04 Feb 14 - 01:27 PM

This WorldCat link about Penny Seeger Cohen gives a hint:

http://orlabs.oclc.org/identities/lccn-n93-21451/

The birth date 1943 should be correct according to the book about Charles Seeger ,
and I have also read elsewhere that she passed away in 1993.

Subject: RE: Obit: Penny Seeger
From: pdq
Date: 04 Feb 14 - 02:00 PM

I have seen Ruth Crawford Seeger's children listed as Michael, Penelope, Barbara, Margaret and Priscilla.

Doesn't that make five in all?

The Pete Seger obituary I read said Pete had four half-siblings.

Subject: RE: Obit: Penny Seeger
From: GUEST,guest - Marnie
Date: 04 Feb 14 - 02:06 PM

Another clue - "Penny [sic] Seeger: Folksinger."
Sing Out! The Folk Song Magazine (May/July 1993): 35–36.
However, the Sing Out issues online begin a year after this issue. Perhaps someone has the hard copy.

Subject: RE: Obit: Penny Seeger
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 04 Feb 14 - 02:27 PM

Penny, Peggy and Barbara Seeger made an album of Animal songs n the sixties, got a copy here somewhere.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Obit: Penny Seeger
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 04 Feb 14 - 02:51 PM

This from NY Times 23 DEC 2001:

"Mr. Cohen moved to Putnam Valley more than 35 years ago when the building where he lived in Lower Manhattan was demolished to make way for the World Trade Center. Also, his late wife, Penny Seeger Cohen, didn't want to raise their children in the city, and they both liked the idea of moving closer to her brother, the folk singer Pete Seeger and his wife, Toshi. (Another Seeger sibling, Mike, is Mr. Cohen's band mate in the New Lost City Ramblers.)"

Best wishes, Thomas.

Subject: RE: Obit: Penny Seeger
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Feb 14 - 03:08 PM

http://www.absoluteradio.co.uk/artists/Pete-Seeger/biography/page2.html

Towards the end of the first paragraph.

Subject: RE: Obit: Penny Seeger
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Feb 14 - 03:26 PM

The last reference I find to Penny Seeger in the New York Times is an announcement of an event where she will perform that was published on July 7, 1991.

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/07/nyregion/westchester-guide-934591.html (Scroll down to fifth paragraph from the bottom.)

See if this will load: a PDF of the obit of their father, Charles Seeger, age 88, published February 8, 1979. PDF from the New York Times archive.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: Penny Seeger
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Feb 14 - 03:48 PM

"The performance was well attended, including Sonya's father, John Cohen, and her mother Penny Seeger, both of whom let me know later that it was the most they had ever heard their daughter sing, which pleased me not a little. It turned out to be one of those special concerts where pretty much everything worked – we even had two encores. I didn't know what to expect from Sonya. She hadn't had much professional experience, but somehow she had a stage presence that conveyed a natural sincerity and conviction – she delivered."

that is from

http://www.dickconnette.com/1stshow.html

Note the 1992 date in the short piece of writing.

Subject: RE: Obit: Penny Seeger
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Feb 14 - 07:51 PM

I found a biographical reference in the WorldCat database, only her name, birth and death years. 1943-1993.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: Penny Seeger (1943-1993)
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Feb 14 - 10:46 AM

Twice the 1993 date has been mentioned, so with you both I suspect she passed on then. But Hootenanny's certainly right when he suggests there is little info readily available.

Subject: RE: Obit: Penny Seeger (1943-1993)
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 05 Feb 14 - 11:01 AM

Thanks for your efforts everybody. I just located confirmation of the date on my own bookshelf.
Bill C Malone's biography of Mike Seeger "Music from the True Vine" clearly states that Mike met his wife Alexia at his sister Penny's memorial service after her death from cancer in 1993.

Hoot

Subject: RE: Obit: Penny Seeger (1943-1993)
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Feb 14 - 11:11 AM

Thanks, Hoot. As an aside, there are some pics of Penny on Google Images.

Subject: RE: Obit: Penny Seeger (1943-1993)
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 05 Feb 14 - 11:58 AM

Thanks Guest for the info. I do have photographs from when we did some picking together at my home and the home of a mutual friend.
I am surprised that the information is so hard to find on line. I also found the date confirmed in The book on the New Lost City Ramblers
"Gone to the Country".
One of many occasions when having a library beats relying on the internet.

Hoot

Subject: RE: Obit: Penny Seeger (1943-1993)
From: GUEST,Mike Yates
Date: 05 Feb 14 - 01:48 PM

Many years ago Penny, her husband, John Cohen, and children spent a year in London, where I got to know them. Penny was the most wonderful person, extremely friendly and a great pleasure to be with. Part of her stay was taking up with her pottery making and one of my greatest treasures is a small, and very beautiful, pot that she gave to me the last time I saw her. I am so sorry that her life was so short.

Subject: RE: Obit: Penny Seeger (1943-1993)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Feb 14 - 06:37 PM

My university doesn't get the Gale database that contains Sing Out! but I can search contents. Was there more than one Sing Out at the same time? This one has different months listed in 1993 and looking at all months I find no article/page numbers that offer any information as is cited above. If I can get my hands on it I'll post the contents or email a PDF to whoever wants it.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: Penny Seeger (1943-1993)
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Feb 14 - 06:16 PM

http://www.eastliverpoolhistoricalsociety.org/seeger1.htm

That's for PDQ.