Buddy Holly's Sunglasses

Buddy Holly
Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known professionally as Buddy Holly, was a Texas singer-songwriter and a pioneer of rock and roll. Although his success lasted only a year and a half before his death in an airplane crash, Holly is described by critic Bruce Eder as "the single most influential creative force in early rock and roll." His works and innovations inspired and influenced contemporary and later musicians, notably The Beatles, Elvis Costello, The Rolling Stones, Don McLean, Bob Dylan, Steve Winwood, and Eric Clapton, and exerted a profound influence on popular music. Holly was among the first group of inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Holly #13 among "The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time".

Death
Holly was offered a spot in the Winter Dance Party, a three-week tour across the Midwest opening on January 23, 1959, by the GAC agency, with other notable performers such as Dion and the Belmonts, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson. He assembled a backing band consisting of Tommy Allsup (guitar), Waylon Jennings (bass) and Carl Bunch (drums), and billed them as The Crickets.

Following a performance at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, on February 2, 1959, Holly chartered a small airplane to take him to the next stop on the tour. Holly, Valens, Richardson and the pilot Roger Peterson were killed en route to Moorhead, Minnesota, when their plane crashed soon after taking off from nearby Mason City in the early morning hours of February 3. There was a snowstorm, and the pilot was not qualified to fly by instruments only. Bandmate Waylon Jennings had given up his seat on the plane, causing Holly to jokingly tell Jennings, "I hope your ol' bus freezes up!" Jennings shot back facetiously, "Well, I hope your ol' plane crashes!" It was a statement that would haunt Jennings for decades. "Although the plane came down only five miles northwest of the airport, no one saw or heard the crash", wrote rock performer, archivist and music historian, Harry Hepcat, in his article about Buddy Holly. "The bodies lay in the blowing snow through the night...... February indeed made us shiver, but it was more than the cold of February that third day of the month in 1959. It was the shiver of a greater, sometimes senseless, reality invading our sheltered, partying, teenaged life of the 50's."

Holly's funeral was held on February 7, 1959, at the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Lubbock. The service was officiated by Ben D. Johnson, who had presided at the Hollys' wedding just months earlier. The pallbearers were Jerry Allison, Joe B. Mauldin, Niki Sullivan, Bob Montgomery, Sonny Curtis and Phil Everly. Waylon Jennings was unable to attend due to his commitment to the still-touring Winter Dance Party. Holly's body was interred in the City of Lubbock Cemetery in the eastern part of the city. His headstone carries the correct spelling of his surname (Holley) and a carving of his Fender Stratocaster guitar.

Holly's pregnant wife, a widow after barely six months of marriage, miscarried soon after, ending that part of the Holly family tree. The miscarriage was reportedly due to “psychological trauma”. Because of this incident, authorities found it necessary, in the months following, to implement a policy against announcing victims’ names until after families had first been informed. María Elena Holly did not attend the funeral, and has never visited the gravesite. She later told the Avalanche-Journal: 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. The first song to commemorate the musicians was “Three Stars” by Eddie Cochran. This song was recorded just one day after the disaster occurred. Twelve years later, in 1971, Don McLean released his single, "American Pie”, to commemorate Buddy Holly’s death and further accentuate the loss of the United States’ innocence. Don McLean’s song began the reference to the tragedy as "The Day the Music Died".

The Day the Music Died (the crash)
When the show ended, Carroll Anderson drove Holly, Valens, and Richardson to the airport. The plane departed from the ramp and taxied to then-Runway 17 at around 12:55 am Central Time on Tuesday, February 3. The weather report indicated light snow with a ceiling of 5,000 feet and winds from 29 to 37 mph. Though there were indications of deteriorating weather along the route, the weather briefings Peterson received failed to relay the information. The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB)—an agency later replaced by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)—investigated the crash. The results of the CAB investigation suggest that, soon after takeoff, Peterson became disoriented due to the unfamiliar way the attitude indicator in the aircraft functioned, combined with an inability to find a point of visual reference on a starless night with no visible lights on the ground. He lost control of the plane when the tip of the right wing hit the ground. The aircraft tumbled across a bean field belonging to Albert Juhl. The Bonanza was at a slight downward angle and banked heavily to the right when it struck the ground at around 170 miles per hour (270 km/h). The plane tumbled and skidded another 570 feet (170 m) across the frozen landscape before the crumpled wreckage came to rest against a wire fence at the edge of Juhl's property.

Dwyer, the owner of the plane and the flight service company, who had witnessed the takeoff, decided to establish radio contact, but all attempts were unsuccessful.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEveritt.2C_Rich2004.5Bhttp:.2F.2Fbooks.google.com.2Fbooks.3Fid.3DH4TSH_b7IHYC.26lpg.3DPA17.26dq.3D.2522I.2520hope.2520your.2520ol.27.2520bus.2520freezes.2520up.2522.26pg.3DPA17.23v.3Donepage.26q.26f.3Dfalse_17.5D_12-1"> The next morning, when Hector Airport in Fargo, North Dakota, had not heard from Peterson, Dwyer contacted authorities and reported the aircraft missing. Dwyer took off in his Cessna 180 and flew Peterson's intended route. Within minutes he spotted the wreckage less than 6 miles (10 km) northwest of the airport.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-16"> <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-CAB_15-1"> The Sheriff's office dispatched Deputy Bill McGill, who drove to the wreck site.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEveritt.2C_Rich2004.5Bhttp:.2F.2Fbooks.google.com.2Fbooks.3Fid.3DH4TSH_b7IHYC.26lpg.3DPA18.26dq.3D.2522I.2520hope.2520your.2520ol.27.2520bus.2520freezes.2520up.2522.26pg.3DPA18.23v.3Donepage.26q.26f.3Dfalse_18.5D_14-1"> The bodies of Holly and Valens lay near the plane. Richardson's body was thrown over the fence and into the cornfield of Juhl's neighbor Oscar Moffett. Peterson's body was entangled in the plane's wreckage.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-CAB_15-2"> With the other participants on "The Winter Dance Party" en route to Moorhead, it fell to Surf Ballroom manager Carroll Anderson, who drove the musicians to the airport and witnessed the plane's takeoff, to make positive identifications of the musicians.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEveritt.2C_Rich2004.5Bhttp:.2F.2Fbooks.google.com.2Fbooks.3Fid.3DH4TSH_b7IHYC.26lpg.3DPA21.26dq.3D.2522I.2520hope.2520your.2520ol.27.2520bus.2520freezes.2520up.2522.26pg.3DPA21.23v.3Donepage.26q.26f.3Dfalse_21.5D_17-0"> The county coroner Ralph Smiley declared that all four had died instantly from "gross trauma" to the brain.