Bess Lomax Hawes, 88, a folklorist and documentary filmmaker, former member of the Almanac Singers, and National Medal of Arts recipient, died at her home in Oregon on Nov. 27.

Lomax Hawes, the youngest child of renowned University of Texas folklorist John Lomax, frequently joined her father and older brother, Alan, as they ventured down south collecting seminal field recordings of traditional songs for the Library of Congress during the 1930s. She later was a folk music and folklore instructor and headed the anthropology department of what is now California State University, Northridge. She had a particularly keen interest in children’s folklore.

For 15 years, Lomax Hawes directed the folk and traditional arts program for the National Endowment for the Arts and is credited with creating the NEA’s National Heritage Fellowships to recognize traditional artists and performers from across the U.S. She was herself recognized by President Clinton, who awarded her the National Medal of Arts in 1993, a year after her retirement.

Although not an original member of the Almanac Singers, Lomax Hawes and her husband Butch Hawes were, for a time, part of the vocal and instrumental group formed in the early 1940s by Pete Seeger, Lee Hays and Millard Lampell, that also included Woody Guthrie (who taught her how to play the mandolin). She co-wrote “Charlie on the MTA,” a song that became a popular hit for The Kingston Trio.