Mimi Baez Farina was the younger sister of Joan Baez, a folk music
legend, and a singer/activist in her own right. She was raised in Palo
Alto, California, and moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts while in her
teens. While staying with her parents in Paris in 1963, Mimi met
musician and novelist Richard Farina, and married him at the age of 17. They
formed a folk music duo and, as "Mimi and Richard Farina", they
recorded two well-received albums in 1965 and 1966. But on Mimi's 21st
birthday, just two days after the publication of Richard's first novel,
he was killed in a motorcycle accident.
Two years later, Mimi married radio DJ and producer Milan Melvin, but the
marriage lasted less than two years. Mimi reverted to the surname
Farina, saying "I'll always love Dick. He was an impossible act to
follow". She continued to perform, record and tour with her sister Joan
and other folk artists, and joined an improv comedy troupe in San
Francisco in the 1970s.
In 1974, inspired by a tour of Sing Sing Prison with B.B. King, Mimi
founded "Bread and Roses", an organization which brings free music and
entertainment to hospitals, nursing homes and prisons. Today, "Bread
and Roses" produces 500 shows per year. Though she continued to sing
and perform sporadically, releasing one solo album and collaborating
with old friends, Mimi devoted most of her time to running "Bread and
Roses". She died of cancer at her home in Northern California in
2001.
