Portside

Keeping Faith
Submitted by Bill
Vinyards Press
October 28, 2013
http://vineyardspress.com/node/88

Faith Petric, a legendary figure in the Bay Area folk music scene, passed away peacefully in her bed at a San Francisco hospice on October 25 at age 98. All local folkies knew her from the Friday night S.F. Folk Club jams she hosted starting in 1966 at her home on Clayton Street.
 
Born in an Idaho log cabin, Faith sang cowboy and country songs at first, and then, during the Spanish Civil war, protest songs. She wrote a regular column, "The Folk Process," for Sing Out! magazine, performed for 20 years with the Chautauqua Circus, helped found the Portable Folk Festival in the early '70s, and celebrated her birthday with a gig at Freight & Salvage every ten, and more recently, every five years. For her memorization of thousands of songs, she was called "the Fort Knox of Folk Music."
 
But she would also want to be remembered for her politics. As a Wobbly - that alone says something - she was a longtime progressive. She marched in Selma for civil rights. She attended the 2008 unveiling of a monument dedicated to the American veterans of the Spanish Civil War, and sang along with the Musicians' Action Group on "Venga Jaleo" and "Vive la Quince Brigada." She was a longtime friend of Pete and Toshi Seeger, who would visit Faith when they were here. Pete called her "one of the most extraordinary people in the world." I have also read that Faith was a founder and the first member of Musicians Union Local 1000, the North American Traveling Musicians Union.
 
Faith loved to sing. "I plan to keep singing until I can't sing anymore," she once said, and she kept her word. She sang songs of peace, justice, aging, and cowboys until shortly before she passed.
 
Faith was soft-spoken, quiet, and quietly influential. She was a major force in folk music in the Bay Area and across America. We miss her voice, her singing, her leadership, and most of all her love, which permeated all she did.
 
Rest in peace, sweet Faith. We keep you in our hearts.

Faith Petric, Activist/Folksinger/SF Icon, Dies at 98
R. Robertson
IndyBay
October 30th, 2013
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/10/30/18745703.php

Singout wrote: Through her life, Faith was many things: a mother, a wife, a shipfitter, a Wobbly and a peace striker. She worked in the San Joaquin Valley with with the Farm Security Administration helping migrant workers, marched with the Civil Rights movement in Selma, visited Russia as part of a peace delegation, floated down the Amazon, and solo-backpacked around the Europe. She performed throughout the U.S. at folk clubs and festivals, has been the life of British pub gatherings, and was godmother to several generations of musicians that passed through the San Francisco Folk Music Club.

In addition to her many club venues and life long commitment to social justice causes, Faith Petric sang with the Raging Grannies in her late eighties and into her nineties.

She is seen at a demo in 2006 in the top photo here in a Raging Granny t-shirt singing with the Grannies at a demonstration of support for Lt. Ehren Watada. Watada was the first commissioned officer to publicly refuse orders in the Iraq War.

She also played guitar and sang as a Granny at the Green Festival, BACORR reproductive rights events, and on the big stage in SF City Hall Plaza at an ANSWER sponsored anti-war demo. Bill Carpenter, indybay collective member, documented these and many other events.

Faith Petric Passes at 98
Mark D. Moss
SingOut
October 25, 2013
http://singout.org/2013/10/25/faith-petric-passes-98/

There are few singers who rise to the level of a true icon, and fewer still who wear that banner with equal parts honest pride and realistic humility. Our dear Faith Petric, the godmother of the San Francisco folk music scene, a true "Geritol gypsy" who traveled around the world singing folks songs for decades, and a long-time contributor and board member of Sing Out! was just such a person. She passed away around midnight on October 24th at Coming Home Hospice in San Francisco, with her daughter Carole at her side and her granddaughter on the phone. Faith was 98.

Faith Petric was an extraordinary woman. She was born in a log cabin in Idaho where her father was a Methodist minister. Her first experiences with music were through hymns, and even then she loved raising her voice to sing. She attended Whitman College in the wake of the Great Depression, graduating in 1937. She raised nearly all the money for tuition on her own, a real feat for a woman of that era. She worked at a bookstore in Seattle following college, lived (platonically) with the well known painter Morris Graves and danced to John Cage's compositions before heading south intending to travel the world . but instead fell in love with San Francisco. She moved east with a friend in the early `40s, becoming a shipfitter in New York, but soon returned to San Francisco "a little bit pregnant."

Through her life, Faith was many things: a mother, a wife, a shipfitter, a Wobbly and a peace striker. She worked in the San Joaquin Valley with with the Farm Security Administration helping migrant workers, marched with the Civil Rights movement in Selma, visited Russia as part of a peace delegation, floated down the Amazon, and solo-backpacked around the Europe. She performed throughout the U.S. at folk clubs and festivals, has been the life of British pub gatherings, and was godmother to several generations of musicians that passed through the San Francisco Folk Music Club.

Along with serving on the board at Sing Out! from the early 1980s until the mid-1990s, Faith wrote "The Folk Process" column for the magazine until 2011, the place for new, often political rewrites for classic folk and standard tunes. It was a perfect fit for an artist who understood how real music and songs can be in connecting life, politics, empowerment and justice. She was always sage and clear with her advice and counsel over the years, regularly finding and recommending songs for the magazine, and sending me ideas for articles and features. There are many, many folks who have contributed to Sing Out! over the years, but it's fair to say that Faith's impact and influence was strong, and Sing Out! would have been a very different magazine over the last 30+ years without her input and partnership.

Faith Petric celebrated her 95th birthday with a concert and Vaudeville show.

Truly remarkable, too, is the fact that Faith kept singing and remained so active until quite recently . long after most mere mortals would have been ready to rest. She celebrated her most recent "rounded milestone" - her 95th birthday - at Berkeley's Freight and Salvage on Sept. 11, 2010 surrounded by friends and fans, singing with that real, strong and true voice that so exemplified how she saw the songs she sang. As Faith said to Amie Hill for a feature in Sing Out! that ran back in 1985 (v.32#4): "Trust the songs." And when Faith sang them, we always could.

Faith's daughter, Carole Craig, wrote a blog that chronicled Faith's last months. Well worth a read for all Faith's friends. Check it out HERE.