Today marks the 67th anniversary of the day the music died. Feb. 3, 1959. 67 years ago today (at 1:00 a.m.), the plane carrying Buddy, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, and pilot Roger Peterson went down in a field near Clear Lake, Iowa. I took this photo at the edge of that field in 2014.
Feb 4, 2026 02:34I lived near Buddy Holly’s widow Maria Elena in Dallas, and helped catalog his effects for a 2008 auction. The police sent that poor woman the blood-stained clothes Buddy was wearing when he died. Imagine being 26, pregnant, alone and stalked by the press and getting that box. Horrifying.
Somewhere Waylon Jennings is still happy he didn’t get on that plane.
