Anne Feeney

Anne Feeney (July 1, 1951 – February 3, 2021) was an American folk musician and singer-songwriter, political activist and attorney. Feeney was born July 1, 1951, in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, Her mother was a homemaker and her father a chemical engineer at Westinghouse Electric Co. She began her career in 1969 as a student activist playing a Phil Ochs song at a Vietnam War protest, one of many causes she embraced. As an undergraduate she cofounded Pittsburgh's first rape crisis center and went on to earn a Juris Doctor (law) degree in 1978, seeking to effect social change through the legal system. She worked as a lawyer for 12 years while also pursuing music and activism, and ultimately decided engaging through music was her calling. Blending Irish music with American folk and bluegrass, as well as her political message, she recorded twelve albums and toured most of the period from 1991 to 2015, attending protest rallies and joining the concerts of groups like Peter, Paul and Mary. The latter also recorded a version of Feeney's anthem for civil disobedience, "Have You Been to Jail for Justice?"
In August 2010, while touring in Sweden, Feeney was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer. Feeney was in rehabilitation for a fracture in her back when she contracted pneumonia related to COVID-19. She died at UPMC Shadyside hospital in Pittsburgh on February 3, 2021, aged 69, with her family by her side.