Post by Jesse Cooke

40 years ago on February 29, 1980, Sheriff Jerry Allen is sorting an old filing cabinet in the Mason City, Iowa courthouse when he stumbles upon an envelope marked "Charles Hardin Holley, rec'd April 7, 1959." Inside are the trademark glasses that Buddy Holly was wearing in the February 3, 1959 plane crash that killed him, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper. Also inside are dice, a lighter, and a watch engraved “J.P. Richardson,” the Big Bopper’s real name. While personal effects first collected from the crash site were turned over to family in 1959, these items were recovered months later when the snow melted and wound up sitting filed away for more than 20 years. When Allen announced his find, a dispute erupted over the glasses’ ownership. On March 20, 1981, a judge awarded them to Holly’s widow Maria Holly Diaz, the “widowed bride” Don McLean sings about in his 1971 classic “American Pie” (“I can't remember if I cried when I read about his widowed bride”). In 1998, Diaz sold the glasses for $80,000 to Civic Lubbock, the nonprofit behind the city's Buddy Holly Center where they are on permanent display. About “American Pie,” Diaz said in 2009 that she likes the song, but disagrees with its premise. "Buddy may not be here, but the music has not died. It is still alive and well."