This Day in Texas History: Teenage Idol Buddy Holly Dies in Plane Crash

This Day in Texas History:
(from the Texas State Historical Association archives)

Teenage Idol Buddy Holly Dies in Plane Crash
February 03, 1959

On this day in 1959, Charles Hardin Holley, better known as Buddy Holly, died in a plane crash near Mason City, Iowa.

After a show on the night of February 2 in Clear Lake, Holly, J. P. Richardson (the “Big Bopper“), and Ritchie Valens took off in a chartered plane for Fargo, North Dakota. The aircraft went down shortly after take-off, and all aboard were killed.

The innovative Holly and his group, the Crickets, had achieved a high level of fame that persists more than forty years later. In Lubbock, Holly’s hometown, a large statue of the musician stands near the Lubbock Memorial Center.

Buddy Holly