On This Day in 2002, We Lost an American Folk Icon Who Revived Interest in the Genre at the Age of 65 (and He Was in Greenwich Village When It All Started)

What would folk music be without the legend himself, Dave Van Ronk? He was one of the most important figures in the 1960s Greenwich Village scene in New York City. And while his name may not be quite as memorable as Bob Dylan or Joan Baez, his work as a folk singer during that time would become legendary. He was nicknamed the “Mayor of MacDougal Street” because of his prominence, after all. And, sadly, on this day in 2002, Van Ronk passed away at the age of 65. Let’s celebrate the work and life of one of folk music’s most significant revivalists, shall we?

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The Legacy of Dave Van Ronk

David Kenneth Ritz Van Ronk was born on June 30, 1936, in Brooklyn. He moved to Queens in the 1960s, where he would start his music career as part of a barbershop quartet.

His first professional gigs as a musician would occur soon after. Van Ronk performed with jazz bands around New York City, playing a tenor banjola. After the traditional jazz boom had fizzled out, he turned to the blues. And by the late 1950s, Van Ronk had dove fully into folk-blues, arming himself with an acoustic guitar. He would come to be one of the most prominent folk revival musicians of the 1960s.

Dave Van Ronk was known for his large stature, as well as is charismatic way of speaking. He would come to be involved in quite a few historically significant moments in the years that followed. He was part of a group of people who were expelled from the Totskyist Socialist Workers Party in 1964. In 1969, he was dining at a nearby restaurant when the Stonewall Riots took place, which he joined. In 1974, he appeared at the legendary Evening For Salvador Allende, organized by fellow folk icon Phil Ochs. 

Van Ronk continued to perform until mere months before his death. He succumbed to cardiopulmonary failure following treatment for colon cancer on February 10, 2002, in New York City. He was in the middle of working on his memoir when he died. Collaborator Elijah Wald finished them, publishing them under the title The Mayor Of MacDougal Street.

Photo by Kai Shuman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images