The "Night" The Music Died - The Buddy Holly Plane Crash 1959

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Hello! I'm Mr. Ed

Blog Created: 7-9-2023

Last Updated: 7-12-2023

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On February 3, 1959, American rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and "The Big Bopper" J. P. Richardson were all killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, together with pilot Roger Peterson. The event later became known as "The Day the Music Died" after singer-songwriter Don McLean referred to it as such in his 1971 song "American Pie".

At the time, Holly and his band, consisting of Waylon Jennings, Tommy Allsup, and Carl Bunch, were playing on the "Winter Dance Party" tour across the Midwest. Rising artists Valens, Richardson, and vocal group Dion and the Belmonts had joined the tour as well. The long journeys between venues on board the cold, uncomfortable tour buses adversely affected the performers, with cases of flu and even frostbite.

After stopping at Clear Lake to perform, and frustrated by the conditions on the tour buses, Holly chose to charter a plane to reach their next venue in Moorhead, Minnesota. Richardson, suffering from the flu, swapped places with Jennings, taking his seat on the plane, while Allsup lost his seat to Valens on a coin toss. Soon after takeoff, late at night and in poor, wintry weather conditions, the pilot lost control of the light aircraft, a Beechcraft Bonanza, which subsequently crashed into a cornfield, killing all four on board.

A V-tailed Bonanza similar to N3794N, the accident aircraft.

The event has since been mentioned in several songs and films. Various monuments have been erected at the crash site and in Clear Lake, where an annual memorial concert is also held at the Surf Ballroom, the venue that hosted the artists' last performances.

In November 1958, Buddy Holly terminated his association with The Crickets. According to Paul Anka, Holly realized he needed to go back on tour again for two reasons: he needed cash because the Crickets' manager Norman Petty had apparently stolen money from him, and he wanted to raise funds to move to New York City to live with his new wife, María Elena Holly, who was pregnant. Holly signed up with General Artists Corporation (GAC) because "he knew they were planning a British tour and he wanted to be in on that".

For the start of the "Winter Dance Party" tour, Holly assembled a band consisting of Waylon Jennings (bass), Tommy Allsup (guitar), and Carl Bunch (drums), with the opening vocals of Frankie Sardo. The tour was set to cover twenty-four Midwestern cities in as many days—there were no off days. New hit artist Ritchie Valens, "The Big Bopper" J. P. Richardson, and the vocal group Dion and the Belmonts joined the tour to promote their recordings and make an extra profit.

The 1959 tour began in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on January 23, with the performance in Clear Lake, Iowa, on February 2 being the eleventh of the twenty-four scheduled events. The amount of travel required soon became a serious problem. The distances between venues had not been properly considered when the performances were scheduled. Instead of systematically circling around the Midwest through a series of venues in close proximity to one another, the tour erratically zigzagged back and forth across the region, with distances between some tour stops exceeding 400 miles (640 km). As there were no off days, the bands had to travel most of each day, frequently for ten to twelve hours in freezing mid-winter temperatures. Most of the Interstate Highway System had not yet been built, so the routes between tour stops required far more driving time on narrow two-lane rural highways than would now be the case on modern expressways.

GAC-Super Productions, the organization that booked the tour, later received considerable criticism for their seemingly total disregard for the conditions they forced the touring musicians to endure:

"They didn't care. It was like they threw darts at a map ... The tour from hell—that's what they named it—and it's not a bad name." — Buddy Holly historian Bill Griggs.

The entire company of musicians traveled together in one bus, although the buses used for the tour were wholly inadequate, breaking down and being replaced frequently. Griggs estimates that five separate buses were used in the first eleven days of the tour—"reconditioned school buses, not good enough for school kids". The artists themselves were responsible for loading and unloading equipment at each stop, as no road crew assisted them. Adding to the disarray, the buses were not equipped for the harsh weather, which consisted of waist-deep snow in several areas and varying temperatures from 20 °F (−7 °C) to as low as −36 °F (−38 °C). One bus had a heating system that malfunctioned shortly after the tour began, in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Buddy Holly on bus with others.

Later, Richardson and Valens began experiencing flu-like symptoms and drummer Bunch was hospitalized for severely frostbitten feet after the tour bus stalled in the middle of the highway in subzero temperatures near Ironwood, Michigan. The musicians replaced that bus with another school bus and kept traveling. As Holly's group had been the backing band for all of the acts, Holly, Valens and Dion DiMucci took turns playing drums for each other at the performances in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Clear Lake, Iowa, with Holly playing drums for Dion, Dion playing drums for Ritchie, and Ritchie playing drums for Holly.

On Monday, February 2, the tour arrived in Clear Lake, west of Mason City, having driven 350 miles (560 km) from the previous day's concert in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The town in northern Iowa had not been a scheduled stop; tour promoters hoped to fill the open date and called the manager of the local Surf Ballroom, Carroll Anderson (1920–2006), and offered him the show. Anderson accepted and they set the show for that night. By the time Holly arrived at the venue that evening, he was frustrated with the ongoing problems with the bus. The next scheduled destination after Clear Lake was Moorhead, Minnesota, a 365-mile (590 km) drive north-northwest—and, as a reflection of the poor quality of the tour planning, a journey that would have taken them directly back through the two towns they had already played within the last week. No let-up after that was in sight, as the following day after having traveled from Iowa to Minnesota, they were scheduled to travel right back to Iowa, specifically almost directly south to Sioux City, a 325-mile (520 km) trip.

Holly chartered a plane to fly himself and his band to Fargo, North Dakota, which is adjacent to Moorhead. The rest of the party would have picked him up in Moorhead, saving him the journey in the bus and leaving him time to get some rest. Their gig in Moorhead was to have been a radio performance at the station KFGO with disk jockey Charlie Boone.

Flight arrangements ~

Anderson called Hubert Jerry Dwyer (1930–2016), owner of the Dwyer Flying Service in Mason City, to charter the plane to fly to Fargo's Hector Airport, the closest one to Moorhead. Flight arrangements were made with Roger Peterson, a 21-year-old local pilot described as a "young married man who built his life around flying".

The flying service charged a fee of $36 per passenger for the flight on the 1947 single-engined, V-tailed Beechcraft 35 Bonanza (registration N3794N), which seated three passengers and the pilot. A popular misconception, originating from Don McLean's song about the crash, was that the plane was called American Pie; no record exists of any name ever having been given to N3794N.

The most widely accepted version of events was that Richardson had contracted the flu during the tour and asked Jennings for his seat on the plane. When Holly learned that Jennings was not going to fly, he said in jest: "Well, I hope your damned bus freezes up." Jennings responded: "Well, I hope your ol' plane crashes", a humorous but ill-fated response that haunted him for the rest of his life. Valens, who once had a fear of flying, asked Allsup for his seat on the plane. The two agreed to toss a coin to decide. Bob Hale, a disc jockey with Mason City's KRIB-AM, was emceeing the concert that night and flipped the coin in the ballroom's side-stage room shortly before the musicians departed for the airport. Valens won the coin toss for the seat on the flight. Valens is apocryphally said to have remarked, "That's the first time I've ever won anything in my life."

In contradiction to the testimony of Allsup and Jennings, Dion has since said that Holly approached him along with Valens and Richardson to join the flight, not Holly's bandmates. In a 2009 interview, Dion said that Holly called him, Valens, and Richardson into a vacant dressing room during Sardo's performance and said, "I've chartered a plane, we're the guys making the money [we should be the ones flying ahead]...the only problem is there are only two available seats." According to Dion, it was Valens, not Richardson, who had fallen ill, so Valens and Dion flipped a coin for the seat. In his interview, no mention is made of Jennings or Allsup being invited on the plane. Dion said he won the toss, but ultimately decided that since the $36 fare (equivalent to $360 in 2022) equaled the monthly rent his parents paid for his childhood apartment, he could not justify the indulgence.

Take-off and crash ~

After the show ended, Anderson drove Holly, Valens, and Richardson to nearby Mason City Municipal Airport, where the elevation is 1,214 feet (370 m) AMSL. The weather at the time of departure was reported as light snow, a ceiling of 3,000 feet (900 m) AMSL with sky obscured, visibility six miles (10 km), and winds from 20 to 30 mph (32 to 48 km/h). Although deteriorating weather was reported along the planned route, the weather briefings Peterson received failed to relay the information.

Pilot - Roger Arthur Peterson. 21-years old.

The plane took off normally from runway 17 (today's runway 18) at 00:55 (12:55 am) CST on Tuesday, February 3. Dwyer witnessed the southbound take-off from a platform outside the control tower. He was able to clearly see the aircraft's tail light for most of the brief flight, which started with an initial 180 degree left turn to pass east of the airport, climbing to approximately 800 feet (240 m) AGL. After an additional left turn to a northwesterly heading, the tail light was then observed gradually descending until it disappeared. Around 01:00 (1:00 am), when Peterson failed to make the expected radio contact, repeated attempts to establish communication were made, at Dwyer's request, by the radio operator, but they were all unsuccessful.

Later that morning, Dwyer, having heard no word from Peterson since his departure, took off in another airplane to retrace Peterson's planned route. Within minutes, at around 9:35 am, he spotted the wreckage less than six miles (10 km) northwest of the airport. The sheriff's office, alerted by Dwyer, dispatched Deputy Bill McGill, who drove to the crash site, a cornfield belonging to Albert Juhl.

The Bonanza had impacted terrain at high speed, estimated to have been around 170 mph (270 km/h), banked 90° to the right and in a nose-down attitude. The right wing tip had struck the ground first, gouging a 12'x2' deep furrow, crumpling then breaking off. The fuselage then hit the ground right-side down and bounced a few feet back into the air, traveling another 50 feet through the air, simultaneously rolling inverted due to the remaining left wing still generating lift. The plane then struck the ground a final time, in an inverted, nose-down position, the nose hitting and flipping the plane over into a right-side up, tail-first position. The momentum of the heavy engine caused the fuselage, left wing remaining attached and intact to the end, to roll upon itself into a virtual ball, rolling nose-over-tail across the frozen field for 540 feet (160 m), before coming to rest tail-first against a wire fence at the edge of Juhl's property. The bodies of Holly and Valens had been ejected from the fuselage and lay near the plane's wreckage. Richardson's body had been thrown 40' over the fence and into the cornfield of Juhl's neighbor Oscar Moffett, while Peterson's body was entangled in the wreckage. With the rest of the entourage en route to Minnesota, Anderson, who had driven the party to the airport and witnessed the plane's takeoff, had to identify the bodies of the musicians. County coroner Ralph Smiley certified that all four victims died instantly, citing the cause of death as "gross trauma to brain" for the three artists and "brain damage" for the pilot.

Plane at crash site.

Bodies lay around the downed aircraft.

Aftermath ~

María Elena Holly learned of her husband's death via a television news report. A widow after only six months of marriage, she suffered a miscarriage shortly after, reportedly due to "psychological trauma". Holly's mother, on hearing the news on the radio at home in Lubbock, Texas, screamed and collapsed. Within months of Holly's death, official protocols were implemented to ensure that the names of victims of traumatic incidents are not released by authorities until after their families have been notified.

Despite the tragedy, the "Winter Dance Party" tour continued. Fifteen-year-old Bobby Vee was given the task of filling in for Holly at the next scheduled performance in Moorhead, in part because he "knew all the words to all the songs". Jennings and Allsup carried on for two more weeks, with Jennings taking Holly's place as lead singer.

Meanwhile, funerals for the victims were held individually. Holly and Richardson were buried in Texas, Valens in California, and Peterson in Iowa. Holly's widow, María Elena, did not attend the funeral. She later said in an interview: "In a way, I blame myself. I was not feeling well when he left. I was two weeks pregnant, and I wanted Buddy to stay with me, but he had scheduled that tour. It was the only time I wasn't with him. And I blame myself because I know that, if only I had gone along, Buddy never would have gotten into that airplane."

Maria Elena Holly. Buddy's wife.

Official investigation ~

The official investigation was carried out by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB, precursor to the NTSB). It emerged that Peterson had over four years of flying experience, of which one was with Dwyer Flying Service, and had accumulated 711 flying hours, of which 128 were on Bonanzas. He had also logged 52 hours of instrument flight training, although he had passed only his written examination, and was not yet qualified to operate in weather that required flying solely by reference to instruments. Peterson and Dwyer Flying Service itself were certified to operate only under visual flight rules, which essentially require that the pilot must be able to see where he is going. However, on the night of the accident, visual flight would have been virtually impossible due to the low clouds, the lack of a visible horizon, and the absence of ground lights over the sparsely populated area.

Furthermore, Peterson, who had failed an instrument checkride nine months before the accident, had received his instrument training on airplanes equipped with a conventional artificial horizon as a source of aircraft attitude information, while N3794N was equipped with an older-type Sperry F3 attitude gyroscope. Crucially, the two types of instruments display the same aircraft pitch attitude information in graphically opposite ways.

Another contributing factor was the "seriously inadequate" weather briefing provided to Peterson, which "failed to even mention adverse flying conditions which should have been highlighted". The CAB concluded that the probable cause of the accident was "the pilot's unwise decision" to attempt a flight that required skills he did not have.

Subsequent investigations ~

On March 6, 2007, in Beaumont, Texas, Richardson's body was exhumed for reburial. Forest Lawn Cemetery moved Richardson’s body to a more suitable area after plans were made to erect a bronze statue near his gravesite to accompany a newly-received historical marker. As the body was to be placed in a new casket while above ground, the musician's son, Jay Perry Richardson, took the opportunity to have his father's body re-examined to verify the original coroner's findings and asked forensic anthropologist William M. Bass to carry out the procedure. A longstanding rumor surrounding the accident, which this re-examination sought to confirm or dispel, asserted that an accidental firearm discharge took place on board the aircraft and caused the crash. Another longstanding theory surmised that Richardson initially survived the crash and subsequently crawled out of the wreckage in search of help before succumbing to his injuries, prompted by the fact that his body was found farther from the plane than the other victims. Bass and his team took several X-rays of Richardson's body and eventually concluded that the musician had indeed died instantly from extensive, unsurvivable fractures to virtually every bone in his body. No traces of lead were found from any bullet, nor any indication that he had been shot. Coroner Smiley's original 1959 report was, therefore, confirmed as accurate.

In March 2015, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) received a request to reopen the investigation into the accident. The request was made by L. J. Coon, a retired pilot from New England who felt that the conclusion of the 1959 investigation was inaccurate. Coon suspected a possible failure of the right ruddervator, or a problem with the fuel system, as well as possible improper weight distribution. Coon also argued that Peterson may have tried to land the plane and that his efforts should be recognized. The NTSB declined the request in April 2015, saying that the evidence presented by Coon was insufficient to merit the reconsideration of the original findings.

Legacy

Notification of victims' families ~

Following the miscarriage suffered by Holly's wife and the circumstances in which she was informed of his death, a policy was later adopted by authorities not to disclose victims' names until after their families have been informed.

Memorials ~

A memorial service for Peterson was held at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Ventura, Iowa, on February 5. A funeral was held the next day at St. Paul Lutheran Church in his hometown of Alta; Peterson was buried in Buena Vista Memorial Cemetery in nearby Storm Lake.

Films ~

The accident closes the biographical film The Buddy Holly Story (1978); the film ends as the Clear Lake concert concludes, and a freeze-frame shot is followed with a caption revealing their deaths later that night "...and the rest is Rock 'N Roll."

The run-up to the accident and its aftermath, particularly the reactions of Ritchie Valens' immediate family and loved ones, are also depicted in the Valens biopic La Bamba (1987).

Memorial concerts ~

Fans of Holly, Valens, and Richardson have been gathering for annual memorial concerts at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake since 1979. The fiftieth anniversary concert took place on February 2, 2009, with Delbert McClinton, Joe Ely, Wanda Jackson, Los Lobos, Chris Montez, Bobby Vee, Graham Nash, Peter and Gordon, Tommy Allsup, and a house band featuring Chuck Leavell, James "Hutch" Hutchinson, Bobby Keys, and Kenny Aronoff. Jay Perry Richardson, the son of the Big Bopper, was among the participating artists, and Bob Hale was the master of ceremonies, as he was at the original 1959 concert.

Monuments ~

In June 1988, a 4-foot (1.2 m) tall granite memorial bearing the names of Peterson and the three entertainers was dedicated outside the Surf Ballroom with Peterson's widow, parents, and sister in attendance; the event marked the first time that the families of Holly, Richardson, Valens, and Peterson had gathered together.

Monument in front of the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa.

In 1989, Ken Paquette, a Wisconsin fan of the 1950s era, made a stainless-steel monument that depicts a guitar and a set of three records bearing the names of the three performers killed in the accident. The monument is on private farmland, about 1⁄4 mi (400 m) west of the intersection of 315th Street and Gull Avenue, five miles (8 km) north of Clear Lake. At that intersection, a large plasma-cut steel set of Wayfarer-style glasses, similar to those Holly wore, marks the access point to the crash site.

Plane crash site memorial.

Paquette also created a similar stainless-steel monument to the three musicians located outside the Riverside Ballroom in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where Holly, Richardson, and Valens played their penultimate show on February 1. This second memorial was unveiled on July 17, 2003. In February 2009, a further memorial made by Paquette for Peterson was unveiled at the crash site.

Roads ~

A road originating near the Surf Ballroom, extending north and passing to the west of the crash site, is now known as Buddy Holly Place.

Songs ~

Tommy Dee recorded "Three Stars" (1959), commemorating the musicians.

In 1961, Mike Berry recorded "Tribute to Buddy Holly", which describes the night of the flight. It reached number 24 on the UK Singles Chart and was notoriously banned by the BBC for being "too morbid".

Don McLean, a fan of Buddy Holly, later addressed the accident in his song "American Pie" (1971), dubbing it "the Day the Music Died", which for McLean symbolized the "loss of innocence" of the early rock-and-roll generation.

In 1978, Waylon Jennings briefly added his own memories of the incident onto his song "A Long Time Ago", from the album I've Always Been Crazy. He sings the lines "Don’t ask me who I gave my seat to on that plane, I think you already know, I told you that a long time ago."

Dion recorded "Hug My Radiator" which references the "broken-down bus" and the chilling cold the performers experienced on the tour. The song does not directly reference the three performers who died, but Dion has said, in interviews, that the song is a memory of the tour and that he also almost got on the airplane that crashed, but it was too expensive.

Fiction Howard Waldrop's short story "Save a Place in the Lifeboat for Me" (collected in Howard Who?) describes a fictional attempt by a sextet of famous slapstick characters (Chico and Harpo Marx, Abbott and Costello, and Laurel and Hardy) to prevent the accident from occurring.

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From Forbes

Rock Icon Dion Recalls 1959 Plane Crash That Killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens And The Big Bopper ~

By Jim Clash, Contributor

I write about extreme adventure, motorsports and classic rock.

Clash: Let's start with a life-changing event. In 1959, a plane with The Big Bopper, Ritchie Valens and Buddy Holly crashed while you all were on the Winter Dance Party tour, killing all three stars and the pilot. You were 19 at the time. What are your recollections now?

DiMucci: It did change my life. I got to know Buddy Holly pretty well. I introduced him to Manny’s Music on 48th Street in New York and a clothing shop on Third Avenue [laughs]. We all went out on that tour in January 1959. We rehearsed in Chicago first. Then we drove up to Milwaukee in a bus. It was not the typical bus you see today, like a Golden Eagle. It was a yellow church school bus out of a parking lot. That was it.

It was a lot of fun in the back of that bus with Ritchie Valens, Buddy and The Big Bopper sharing each other's songs. After two weeks into the tour, the bus had broken down so many times. That night in Clear Lake, IA, Buddy just got fed up. He was a little older, 22 I think. He was very decisive. He impressed me because I was 19 and insecure. He decided to charter a plane so we could get to the next stop, get a shower, get some sleep, get our wash done. It was like 400 miles in blinding snow to Fargo, ND.

So he chartered a Beechcraft Bonanza. That night we were all tired after the show. He took us into this room. And he said, “Listen, there’s only four seats on the plane." The pilot took up one and there was room for only three others. One of the headliners couldn't go. So let’s flip a coin to see who gets to fly and who goes on the bus. Ritchie was sick and wasn't really crazy about flying. Anyway we flipped the coin, and I won the toss.

Then we found out it was going to cost $36 for each of us. It would have been less than a two-hour flight. On the bus, we would have to drive all night to Fargo. But when he said $36, a light went off in my head because my father paid that monthly for rent in the Bronx. So I thought, ‘I’m not going to spend a whole month’s rent just for a flight.’ My primary reason for not going was the $36! So I said to Ritchie, “Please, you go on the plane. Take your coat. Stay warm. I’ll watch your guitars." Buddy then said to me: “Watch my guitar, too. Take care of it like you would take care of your testicles [laughs].” I said okay. Later on, when I saw Peter Townshend [The Who] break a Fender guitar on-stage, I thought it was a sacrilege. Guitars were like gold to us.

Anyway, the four of them left for the airport around midnight. I got on the bus with some of the back-up musicians. The plane took off, and within five minutes crashed in a storm. The next morning, when we showed up and pulled in to the hotel in Fargo, I remember it as a sunny day. We got off the bus and the locals were in the lobby watching this black-and-white TV. It was coming across the screen that these three rock-and-roll artists had died in a plane crash. Jim, it was hard to get my mind around it. I didn’t even know how to grab onto that. It baffled me. I have a good memory before that happened, but after I don’t remember too much.

We stayed out on tour for two more weeks. I was singing some of Ritchie’s songs, some of Buddy’s. We got telegrams from Bobby Darin, Phil Spector, Dick Clark, Paul Anka. Back then it was telegrams, not texts. When I finally came back to the Bronx, there was no grief counseling. My parents didn’t talk about it. Nothing. Years later, I talked to my father. He said that when he heard the news it felt like getting open-heart surgery without the anaesthesia. My sister, Joanie, was making a peanut butter sandwich and just collapsed on her knees. She didn’t even know who it was in the plane crash. The news was just that three rock-and-rollers had died.

In the lobby of the hotel, we had gotten on the line, making all of these calls. But nobody thought of calling Ritchie’s mother. Or Buddy’s family. We didn’t have their numbers. A lot of people didn’t even get through to their own homes because the lines were so busy. So a lot of these families just heard it on radio, like my family. Radio was big in those days.

Those three guys affected my life on a lot of levels. Buddy told me once, "Dion, I don’t know how to succeed, but I know how to fail. Try to please everybody, and you’ll go nowhere." If he didn’t tell me that, I probably never would have done "Runaround Sue," "The Wanderer," "Abraham, Martin and John." I miss those guys. Thank God that in my faith, relationships never end. I always ask for their prayers, because I feel they are closer to the beatific vision, and are helping me out. I have three angels up there.

Editor's Note: In another popular account of this story, it is said that musician Waylon Jennings is the one who gave up his seat on the plane that fateful night. Jennings died in 2002.

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At The Green Bay, WI, Ballroom – February 1, 1959. Buddy Holly has a drink.

17-year old Richie Valens in his stage costume.

Thje Big Bopper, J.P. Richardson clowns for the camera with a few fans.

Mary Gerber class photo. She took the last photos at the concert in 1959.

Mary Gerber's photo of Ritchie Valens at the Surf Ballroom in 1959, his last show. Photo courtesy Jim McCool and Sevan Garabedian.

Close up shot.

Beechcraft S35 Bonanza at Crissy Field, 1972.

A 1947 advertisement for the first Model 35 Bonanza.

Roger Arthur Peterson. The 21-year old pilot of the doomed flight.

Mason City and Clear Lake, Iowa.

Winter Dance Party Tour schedule, 1959.

The body of Richie Valens lays a few feet from the aircraft.

Richie Valens (in dark coat), Buddy Holly (in light coat) and Richardson (other side of fence). Peterson was still in the plane.

Signpost east of the crash site replicating Holly's signature glasses. The crash site is located 1850 feet down the path along the fence line.

A statue of Buddy Holly at Buddy Holly Plaza on November 8, 2008 in Lubbock, Texas.

Buddy and Maria Elena Holly Plaza. Lubbock, Texas.

The Buddy Holly Center, a museum in Lubbock, Texas.

Avenue named for the Crickets in downtown Lubbock, Texas.

Personal effects from the Buddy Holly airplane accident scene, 1980, filed by a local farmer more than two months after the accident. Buddy’s lensless frames, dice, watch band, watch and watch back plate that possibly belonged to the Big Bopper, and a Zippo lighter on October 2, 1980 in Mason City, Iowa. (Photo by Bob Modersohn/Getty Images).

Buddy Holly's glasses on display.

It took 21-years for Buddy Holly's glasses to be returned.

A 25" x 21" artists proof of the painting "True Love Ways" by Allen Berman, signed by Maria Elena Holly along the lower left edge in black marker. In Excellent condition. From Maria Elena Holly's personal collection.

The Big Bopper's briefcase on display at the Surf Club.

Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, J.P. Richardson Autographed Guitar Signed, Framed with COA.

The guitar used by the Big Bopper was taken from the plane wreckage after the accident. It has three cracks in it from the crash. It has since been sold at auction.

J.P. Richardson's casket at funeral home.

Fans gather at funeral home for funeral of the Big Bopper.

The casket of J.P. Richardson at gravesite.

The headstone of Buddy Holly at the City of Lubbock Cemetery on November 8, 2008.

Richie Valens is buried beside his mother.

Holly as a teenager.

Holly in 1956.

On the Ed Sullivan Show.

Performing with the Cricketts.

On tour.

Buddy Holly and girlfriend Echo McGuire dressed for date, possibly a high school function.

Buddy clowning in a photo booth.

Buddy and Maria at their wedding.

Buddy at his wedding.

Buddy Holly and Maria Elena Santiago on their wedding day (August 15th, 1958).

Buddy on stage. Photo signed by his wife.

Richardson, Valens and Holly.

Valens interviewed for radio station KFWB.

Pomona, Ontario students met Richie Valens a month before his death

Ritchie Valens signature.

Richardson in 1958.

Richardson used a telephone in parts of his act.

Donna Lugwig was Richie Valens' girlfriend at the time and the she was the girl he wrote the song, "Donna" about.

1959, Donna’s senior class photo from James Monroe High School.

Donna in Ritchie’s room with his guitars. Only his Fender guitar is missing. He had taken it with him on his final tour.

The Fender guitar had made it home. Also pictured is Ritchie’s Gibson guitar that he and his mom had purchased just a few months earlier.

This photo is taken after Ritchie’s death during an interview.

On the first anniversary of Ritchie’s death, Ritchie’s mother wanted to honor his memory. Pictured from left to right: Olga Jurado-Zubick, Ritchie’s cousin; Gail Smith, Ritchie’s classmate and president of the Ritchie Valens Memorial Fan Club; Paulina Lozano, sister of Ritchie’s aunt Ernestine; Ritchie’s mother Connie, better known a “Concha”; Donna Ludwig-Fox; and unknown young woman. Photo taken in May, 1959 at the San Fernando Mission Cemetery, Mission Hills, California.

The Winter Dance Party Concert at the Henry J. Mellow Center, Watsonville, CA. Photo taken backstage with Donna and the family of Ritchie Valens. Pictured from left to right: Bob Morales, Irma Norton, “Donna” Fox, Mario Ramirez and Connie Valens.

More recent photos of Maria.

Maria Elena Holly attends a ceremony honoring Buddy Holly with the 2447th Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on September 7, 2011 in Hollywood, California.

Buddy Holly in a hotel room talking with the Everly Brothers.

Buddy with the Everly Brothers.

Carl Bunch.

Elvis talking to Buddy Holly Lubbock Texas. Only known photo of Elvis and Buddy Holly together.

Holly opens for Elvis Presley. April 10, 1956 in Lubbock, Texas.

Holly and Elvis on the same ticket.

Joseph Valenzuela and son Ritchie Valens. Joseph died in 1952.

Ritchie Valens' father's unmarked grave.

Larry Holly. Older brother to Buddy Holly.

Mike Berry (singer).

Photo of Dion and The Belmonts from the magazine Hit Parader from September 1960.

Tommy Allsup in 2009.

Waylon Jennings in 1976.

Dr. Bill Bass in 2011.

Concert poster for the ill-fated Winter Dance Party tour of 1959.

Advertisement featured in Cashbox magazine, 13 December 1958.

Billboard advertisement, December 15, 1958.

Cashbox advertisement, August 3 1957.

Billboard advertisement, November 11, 1957.

This is the single sleeve for the single A Tribute To Buddy Holly by the artist Hep Stars.

Billboard advertisement, July 31 1961.

The Buddy Holly Story starring Gary Busey.

Buddy Holly and the Crickets in 1957 (top to bottom; Allison, Holly and Mauldin).

Waylon Jennings and Buddy Holly at a photo booth c1958. Colorized picture.

The Crickets in 1962; Sonny Curtis, Jerry Allison, Glen Hardin, Jerry Naylor.

Historic Downtown Clear Lake, Iowa.

Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens phoned home on this payphone right before leaving the Surf Club for the ill faded flight.

Surf Club Ballroom around the time of the 1959 concert.

Surf Ballroom as it looked in February 1988.

Surf Ballroom in 2015.

View of the marquee at the Paramount Theater, New York City. c1958.

Autographs of Holly, Valens and Richardson from a fan's autograph book possibly signed at the last concert.

45 RPM record signed to "Mary" by Ritchie Valens. (At auction).

Royal Doulton Buddy Holly Toby Character Jug D7100.

A 1959 Buddy Holly "Apartment Tapes" six-song acetate record featuring songs recorded weeks before Holly's death on display before an auction of the late singers memorabilia at the Heritage Auction Gallery in Beverly Hills on April 8, 2010.

Elvis Presley's letter of condolence to Buddy Holly's widow.

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