Do you know about...

...the day the music died?

On February 3, 1959 singers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper boarded a plane near Clear Lake Iowa. They were all part of a "Winter Party" tour and were traveling each night by bus to get to the next venue. Holly decided to charter a plane that evening instead. Holly intended to travel with two of his band members, but one lost a coin toss to Valens. The other, guitarist Waylon Jennings, switched at the last minute, with the Big Bopper who was sick with the flu. The weather was horrible and the pilot was not experienced enough and its believed the wings probably build up ice along the edge, causing it to lose lift and crash not long after takeoff.

Many people know Buddy Holly was from Lubbock, Texas, but The Big Bopper was also a Texas boy. His real name was J.P. Richardson and he hailed from Beaumont near where I grew up in Port Arthur. He was inducted into the Musical Heritage Gallery at The Museum of the Gulf Coast where my husband and I met (he was the founding director and designer of the museum.) While they aren't on display, the museum has in its archives the crash scene photographs from the night they were killed.

The Bopper was known best for his song "Chantilly Lace" and even recorded somewhat of a "music video" for it before that was even a thing. It's pretty comical at the end because after he finishes talking on the phone with his "baby" he raises up the receiver and the phone isn't plugged in!

The Bopper wrote a number of songs, including one for another Southeast Texas boy, Johnny Courville. There is a LOT of musical talent that comes from my part of Texas. It was thought that no one would buy a record from a "Cajun" so Courville's name was changed to Johnny Preston and one of his best-known sons is "Running Bear." When Preston and The Big Bopper went to Houston to record the song they brought a brand new up-and-coming artist to sing the backup. Unfortunately, that singer went out drinking too late the night before and couldn't string together his lyrics... his name was George Jones!

My husband is a pilot and just before we were married he bought a 1958 Cessna 172—a “classic" also known as an “old straight-tail.” Any pilot will know what that means and most of them sigh with nostalgia and remember the first one they ever flew. I sometimes thought all pilots must have started out in an older Cessna 172. It’s a much-beloved airplane, sometimes called the Impala of the skies: durable and easy to fly.

While we no longer own it, my dear husband called our airplane American Pie II. His Cessna came off the assembly line the same month Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper went out on the Winter Dance Party Tour which would eventually lead to their deaths in an airplane crash… an airplane called American Pie.

Many of you might remember the Don McLean song "Bye, bye Miss American Pie"... that's where that song about "the day the music died" came from.

I enjoy adding tidbits about flying into my writing. In The Missing Daughter J.D. takes his first commercial flight and mentioned a wonderful little airfield here near Mineola, Texas.

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This week’s Sleuthing Soundbox is aviation-related… and very suspenseful!

As the wife of a private pilot, this Suspense episode hits hard. It's the terrifying tale of a pilot lost in the fog and the air traffic controller who works to bring him and his little girl safely onto the ground. Originally broadcast on November 18, 1956, this is one that will keep you on the edge of your seat.