Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at
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Peggy Seeger, inspiration for ballad, shares her own music
By LINDA McALPINE / La Crosse Tribune
Peggy Seeger's face may not have been the one to launch a thousand ships, but it was the inspiration for a popular love ballad.
Seeger, half-sister of famous folk singer Pete Seeger and renown in the genre herself, was in La Crosse to perform at the Great River Folk Festival, which continues today on the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse campus.
"We weren't married then, and were estranged, and not getting along very well," Seeger said of her 30-year relationship with songwriter Ewan McColl. "I was in California and he was in England."
Seeger said McColl sang "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," to her over the phone.
"He told me he made it up on the phone as he was talking to me, saying he was cuckoo in love," she said.
"He never sang it again," she said. "He gave it to me."
McColl died in 1989, but Seeger said she thinks of him every time she sings that song.
