She subsequently released an album of the duo's outtakes, Memories. (The two albums made during Richard's lifetime were reissued as a best-of two-fer.) In the late '60s, Fariña, based in California, worked with a satiric improvisational acting group and began to write her own songs. She re-emerged on record in 1971 on Take Heart, a duo album with Tom Jans that included her tribute song to Janis Joplin, "In the Quiet Morning." (This and other songs of hers were also recorded by her sister.)

In the '70s, Fariña founded Bread & Roses, a charity organization devoted to putting on musical performances in hospitals and prisons. Several of the organization's annual benefit concerts, featuring some of the biggest names in folk and popular music, have been recorded and released. In 1985, Fariña finally released a solo album, appropriately entitled Solo, and undertook a national tour. Throughout the late '80s and '90s, she turned her attention back to Bread & Roses, continuing to nurture the organization until she became ill with lung cancer. On July 18, 2001 she died in her Mill Valley home, surrounded by family and friends.