Doris Willens

Though Willens was principally a journalist, she was also area of the Babysitters, a children’s folk group formed on the instigation of Lee Hays from the Weavers. When she and her hubby transferred to Brooklyn in 1955, they resided on to the floor above Hays, after that experiencing the enforced inactivity from the blacklist against the Weavers. She and Hays constructed songs on her behalf baby, leading Hays to claim that they type an organization to record kid’s music for Vanguard. The group was converted to a quartet by adding future star film professional Alan Arkin and his wife, and documented four LPs for Vanguard. Regarding to Arkin, Willens was “the main one who helps it be sound like true parents performing to real kids.” Willens was also a columnist for the business enterprise pages of the brand new York Journal — American and a playwright. Her lengthy camaraderie with Hays and journalistic history produced her well-suited to the duty of penning Hays’ biography, Lonesome Traveller: THE LIFE SPAN of Lee Hays, released in 1988.