Missouri's French folklorist, musician and storyteller, Pete "Pierre" Boyer, died on Friday, June 23, 2000, at the age of 90 years, 1 month and 4 days. Born May 19, 1910 in Racola, Missouri, in Washington County's Old Mines area, he developed an early interest in preserving the French culture. As a young man, he served as guide and assistant to the French-Canadian scholar Joseph Médard Carrière, who had come to Missouri to identify and record the Missouri French Folktales still remembered in the area. Carrière acknowledged the assistance of his young French guide in the introduction to his book, and many years later Pete spoke of the experience he had with the pioneering researcher and his primitive recording equipment. The work resulted in Carrière's important collection Tales from the French Folklore of Missouri, published in 1937.

Throughout the rest of his long life as a father of 10 children, member of the St. James Catholic church of Potosi, and a watch repairman and owner of a jewelry shop in downtown Potosi, Pete continued his interest in the music and lore of his community. After his retirement from his business he devoted his time to sharing his  music, his stories, and his knowledge of the culture of his community with audiences throughout the state and the nation.