Bob Shane, last of the original Kingston Trio passes

NEW YORK — Bob Shane, the last surviving original member of the Kingston Trio, whose smooth close harmonies helped transform folk music from a defiant underground genre into a dominant brand of pop music in the 1950s and ’60s, died on Sunday in Phoenix. He was 85.

Craig Hankenson, his longtime agent, confirmed the death, in a hospice facility.

Mr. Shane, whose whiskey baritone was the group’s most identifiable voice on hits such as “Tom Dooley” and “Scotch and Soda,” sang lead on most of Kingston Trio songs.

He didn’t just outlast the other original members: Dave Guard, who died in 1991, and Nick Reynolds, who died in 2008; he also eventually took ownership of the group’s name and devoted his life to various incarnations of the trio, from its founding in 1957 to 2004, when a heart attack forced him to stop touring.

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