Music Plane Crash Victims #8 - The Big Bopper

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This particular countdown, Music Plane Crash Victims, is based on an idea by @JudyEv . We are at #8, The Big Bopper. Born J.P. Richardson, The Big Bopper, best-known for his smash hit "Chantilly Lace," had a short music career, from 1954 to 1959, when a plane carrying himself, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and pilot Roger Peterson, crashed shortly after takeoff in Cedar Lake, Iowa. Poor weather was a factor, as was, possibly, the fact that Peterson had worked a 17-hour shift before takeoff. The plane crashed at full throttle into a farm field and The Bopper's body was thrown 100 feet from the wreckage. In addition to being a singer and guitarist, The Big Bopper was a songwriter as well as a disc jockey. He worked his way up to program director at KTRM in Beaumont, TX. It was a two-part gig, as he was drafted into the Army. As a corporal, Richardson spent two years as a radar instructor at Ft. Bliss in El Paso, Texas. In addition to "Chantilly Lace," The Bopper wrote "White Lightning," which was George Jones' first #1 country single, and "Running Bear" for his buddy Johnny Preston, who took it to #1, as did Sonny James, and "From a Beggar to a King, which Hank Snow took to #5. The Big Bopper was blessed with a great, big, booming, blustery voice. When that plane went down, well, just listen to "American Pie." (Info verified by Wikipedia)