Pete Seeger passed away Monday, January 27, 2014 in hospital in New York City. According to his family he died in his sleep after a short illness. He was 94. Pete meant a lot to me as my first musical memory was of sitting on his lap at age 3 when he came through Kalamazoo, Michigan to sing at a labor gathering there. He came to my house afterward and being so close to that great spirit and voice shaped the whole of my life. I began to be extremely interested in ballads and folk music at that time and began seriously singing and collecting music at age 6 when I first heard a singer, Bash Kennet, at the Mountain Theatre in Marin County sing Barbara Allen. I lost interest in the mountain play being presented and followed her around until the play started. I only met Pete twice more after age 3, but I did get to be a participant at a workshop for singer/songleaders that he gave in Berkeley. There were only 20 of us and I have to thank Faith Petrick, who also recently passed at age 90, for including me in the group. Pete walked his talk in every way possible. He was a man of principle. When he collected “Wimoweh” in South Africa, later to become “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” he set up a fund for the composer and was able to give the family the royalty moneys he had set aside for them through the years. He did not know who the composer was until many years after he learned the song. My family singing group, Sing Thing, will turn 40 in April and I based it on what I learned from Pete about group singing and oral tradition. Many of the songs I use I got from Pete’s recordings as well as from the Weavers’ recordings. Pete planted a garden of music through his life and I am definitely one of the seeds that sprouted. I hope I can leave some lovely flowers and seeds behind as well from my small plot.