Folk singer Ronnie Gilbert, who is a member of the famous and influential 1950s quartet The Weavers, passed away at the age of 88 due to natural causes.
Donna Korones, Gilbert's long time partner, said that the singer died at a retirement community in the San Francisco Bay Area suburb of Mill Valley.
Gilbert started singing at the age of 12 on the radio before she joined the Weavers in 1940, according to her biography.
Other members of the Weavers were Pete Seeger, Lee Hays and Fred Hellerman, who have recorded hits like "Goodnight Irene", "Tzena Tzena Tzena", "On Top of Old Smokey", "If I Had A Hammer", "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine" and "Wimoweh."
When the group was blacklisted due to their left-wing activities during the McCarthy era, Gilbert pursued a solo career as a singer. She is also a psychologist and a stage actress as well. She also recorded with Holly Near with a total of three albums, CNN reported.
A book of Gilbert's memoir, entitled "Ronnie Gilbert: A Radical Life in Song," will be released in the fall. This book is of the same title of a one-woman show she performed before.
