“Forgotten Hollywood”- If You Knew Peggy Sue…

Posted on October 2, 2018 by raideoman1 | No Comments

Manny P. here…

“`Peggy Sue Gerron Rackham was the Texas woman who inspired the 1958 Buddy Holly song.  Holly wrote several other iconic tunes, such as That’ll Be the Day and Maybe Baby. He also penned the song-sequel Peggy Sue Got Married. She became a celebrity speaker, radio host and a columnist.

“`Gerron was born in Olton, Texas, but moved to Lubbock where she attended high school and met Holly and his friends. Holly became one of her best friends. The tune, Peggy Sue, initially had a different name. It was originally going to be called Cindy Lou (Buddy’s niece). A member of Holly’s band  (Jerry Allison of The Crickets) intended to impress Peggy Sue, so he convinced Holly to change the title. She later married Allison, and they would eventually divorce.

“`Gerron in 2008 released her autobiography — Whatever Happened to Peggy Sue?: A Memoir by Buddy Holly’s Peggy Sue — to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the composition. Material for her memoir came from 150 diary entries. Her life was chronicled in a pair of films: The Buddy Holly Story starring Gary Busey, and Peggy Sue Got Married featuring Kathleen Turner.

“`Holly perished in a February 3, 1959, plane crash in Iowa that also killed Ritchie Valens and J. P. The Big Bopper Richardson.  Gerron toured with The Crickets after the tragedy. She also worked tirelessly to help establish The Buddy Holly Center in Lubbock to pay tribute to the singer, musician, and songwriter described as Lubbock’s most famous native son.

“`Peggy Sue Gerron Rackham was 78.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 2nd, 2018 at 5:24 pm and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.


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