Pete Seeger
I thought he would live forever.
He was the poet laureate of generations - the irreplaceable voice of protest and social justice.
Lest I appear to be romanticizing him unduly, let me say that I think his politics were ridiculous. He was a communist, and remained one long after there was any reasonable excuse-long after the CPUSA stopped being "just" the left wing of the New Deal, after the excesses and abuses of the Stalinist system were plain for all to see.
He said he "drifted away" from the party, but I don't know if he ever resigned.
But he was no Stalinist. He acknowledged the failings of totalitarian communism. The professed ideals of justice and equality - which were empty slogans used by conspiratorial turncoats for whom communism meant little more than professing loyalty to the Soviet Empire - were never just slogans for him. He *believed* in those lofty ideals. He was a good man but a mistaken one.
As a political figure, he was a parody, a joke, an aging relic.
As a folk singer, he was incomparable.
What an irony that he was held in contempt by the a House Committee on UnAmerican Activities. One might call Seeger all manner of things, but unAmerican isn't one of them.
I thought he would live forever. I still think he will.