Bob Dylan would refer to Woody Guthrie as "the true voice of the American spirit". On this day in 1967 writer, singer and folk icon Woodrow Wilson Guthrie passed away of Huntington's chorea at the age of 55. Guthrie fused American musical traditions with political sensibility to create an entirely new template for contemporary folk. In doing so, he laid the groundwork not only for the great folk revival of the 1950s and 60s, but also for such iconic heirs to that movement like Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.