Toshi Seeger | Activist, singer's wife, 91

Toshi Seeger, 91, folk singer Pete Seeger's wife of 70 years and a close partner in his social and environmental activism, has died.

Longtime family friend Thom Wolke confirmed that she died Tuesday night at the couple's home in Beacon in New York's Hudson Valley, about 65 miles north of New York City. The cause of death was not immediately known.

Friends say Mrs. Seeger was an equal who perfectly complemented the idealism of her husband, 94.

"To understand Pete, you have to know Toshi," Wolke said. "They were the ultimate yin and yang. Where Pete was . . . the artist, Toshi kept him grounded."

Mrs. Seeger was born in Germany to an American mother and a Japanese father and was brought to the United States as a baby. She met her future husband as a teenager in New York City when he performed at a square dance and stayed after to dance.

The two were married July 20, 1943, and raised three children.

Mrs. Seeger was particularly active with the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, an environmental group. Tao Rodriguez-Seeger said his grandmother was a pioneer in festival production and played a key role in Clearwater's annual festival. - AP