Bess Lomax Hawes, Folklorist and Singer Dies at 88 in Portland

Bess Lomax Hawes, a folklorist, teacher and singer who helped write “M.T.A.,” an enduring folk ditty about an unfortunate subway commuter that became a hit for the Kingston Trio in 1959, died on Friday in Portland, Ore. She was 88 and lived in Portland.

Her death was announced by her daughter Naomi Bishop.

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Many of us discovered folk music and blues through the Almanac Singers and those around them. I still have an album of union songs they did which I got as a gift when I was 11 years old. The songs are dated, even foreign to us now, but the energy of the singers and their obvious committment to social change still comes across. It is difficult to imagine a Bob Dylan or a Phil Ochs or a Billy Bragg coming to the fore without them. A future generation will say the same about us if we are as meaningful, committed and successful as the Almanac Singers were.