Bobbi Ercoline, Iconic Woodstock Concertgoer on Album Cover, Dead at 73

The mom of two and school nurse died on March 18 surrounded by her family and husband Nick, whom she embraced on the cover of the iconic album Woodstock: Music from the Original Soundtrack and More

Photo: ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty

Bobbi Ercoline, whose image was immortalized on the cover of Woodstock's live album, is dead. She was 73.

Ercoline's death was announced on Facebook by her husband, Nick Ercoline, who also appeared alongside Bobbi on the cover of the iconic music festival's album. The couple was married for 54 years and shared two sons.

"She lived her life well and left this world in a much better place. If you knew her, you loved her," added Nick, explaining that Bobbi died on March 18, surrounded by her family, after being placed in hospice care. Her cause of death, according to The New York Times, was leukemia.

"As a person, she always gave," he said. "How much do you really need if you have all you need or want? So she gave and gave and gave. She didn't deserve this past year's nightmare, but she isn't suffering from the physical pain anymore, and that brings some comfort to us."

The couple was two of more than 400,000 people who attended the event hosted at a farm in Bethel, N.Y., owned by Max Yasgur, between Aug. 15 and Aug. 18, 1969. The historic festival was a scene of performances from artists such as Jimi Hendrix, The Grateful Dead, and Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Speaking to PEOPLE at the time of the festival's 30th anniversary in 1999, Bobbi and Nick revealed that they did not plan to attend the event until they heard a radio advertisement during the festival's first day.

"It said, 'They closed the New York State Thruway. Don't come,' explained Bobbi. "We were on our way. We had to check it out."

The couple and friends drove to the festival site, parking six miles away but close enough to hear the music.

"Everybody shared," added Bobi in her recollection of the festival to PEOPLE. "It was a wonderful time."

While the couple only stayed less than 24 hours at the festival, a photo of them embracing became the cover of the 1970 album Woodstock: Music from the Original Soundtrack and More.

"We found the blanket on the way and picked it up," explained Bobbie while describing the historic cover photo in a 2019 interview with AARP Magazine.

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"We had not come prepared. We didn't have tickets. We just took the challenge, and we didn't know what to expect. There were thousands of people walking miles and miles carrying sleeping bags and instruments, and lots of stuff got discarded. When we got on that hill, we couldn't see the stage, but we had amazing sound."

The cover photo was captured by photographer Burk Uzzle, who explained to Longreads in 2019 that he caught the couple's image because of "the way they were holding themselves up and wrapped in a blanket."

"It all composed very nicely with the hillside in the background and the foreground objects on the left and the side. It lent itself to a very beautiful composition," he added.

Getting selected for the album cover caused an issue for Bobbi, she told The New York Post in 2019 during Woodstock's 50th anniversary.

"That's when I realized I needed to tell my mother that I had gone to Woodstock," Bobbi told the outlet.

The group was supposed to get back in time for church on Sunday, she told

The group's initial intent was to get home in time for church on Sunday, she told New York's Eyewitness News in an interview the same year.

"Proof that I did not go to Mass," she said.