She initially had not planned a professional singing career. Folk singing was a hobby until she met Peter Yarrow, who convinced her to join him in a folk-music trio.
When she was two years old, her family moved to New York City. She grew up in the Greenwich Village neighborhood.
On a PBS special she sang to her little granddaughter Wylly as her two daughters, Erika Marshall (born 1960) and Alicia Travers (born 1965) looked on.
As a teenager, before joining Peter Paul & Mary, she worked as a
dental technician.