Legendary musician Pete Seeger, whose career embodied the modern folk movement, died Monday at the age of 94.
The singer-songwriter, who was a stalwart supporter of workers’ causes, died of natural causes at NewYork Presbyterian Hospital.
“He led by example,” said his grandson, Kitama Cahill Jackson, told The Post. “He instilled in all of us that it was our responsibility to be there for others.”
Seeger, who was once blacklisted during the 1950s McCarthy era, performed with Bruce Springsteen at President Obama’s inauguration in 2009.
“I think overall he will be remembered for his intellect and wanting to make the world a cleaner place,” added his granddaughter Moraya Seeger Jackson. “and he did that with his music.”
Born upstate in Patterson, NY, the veteran singer and activist showed up at the Occupy Wall Street protests in downtown Manhattan in 2011.
He gained fame as a member of The Weavers — a folk quartet from Greenwich Village — and had a hit with a cover of the legendary folk standard “Goodnight Irene.”
In the 1950s, Seeger’s leftist politics got him in trouble with the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
He was kept off commercial TV for more than a decade after tangling with the US government in 1955. He was charged with contempt of Congress, but his sentence was overturned on appeal.
He learned to play the five-string banjo, an instrument he rescued from obscurity and played the rest of his life.
On the skin of Seeger’s banjo was the phrase, “This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender” — a nod to his old pal Woody Guthrie, who emblazoned his guitar with “This machine kills fascists.”
He wrote or co-wrote “If I Had a Hammer,” “Turn, Turn, Turn,” “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” and “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine.”