Editing Ritchie Valens (section)

== Winter Dance Party tour and death (1959) ==
[[File:Ritchie Valens Grave.JPG|thumb|upright=0.8|Grave of Valens and his mother at [[San Fernando Mission Cemetery]]]]
[[File:Winter Dance Party Tour Poster.jpg|thumb|Poster for the "Winter Dance Party" tour|left|270x270px]]{{Main|The Day the Music Died}}Valens was one of the five acts billed for the Winter Dance Party tour, performing with [[Buddy Holly]], [[The Big Bopper|"The Big Bopper" J. P. Richardson]], [[Dion and the Belmonts]], and [[Frankie Sardo]] beginning on January 23, 1959, in [[Milwaukee, Wisconsin]]. The tour was plagued by subzero temperatures and numerous logistical problems. The unheated tour buses twice broke down in freezing weather, with Valens and Richardson experiencing [[flu]]-like symptoms throughout the tour. After the bus stalled in [[Duluth, Minnesota]] on January 31, conditions were so bad that Holly's drummer, [[Carl Bunch]], was hospitalized for severe [[frostbite]] sustained on the bus.{{sfn|Everitt|2004|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=H4TSH_b7IHYC&pg=PA13 13]}}<ref name=":32">{{Cite web |date=2011-03-28 |title=Former Buddy Holly drummer Carl Bunch died "positive and at peace" |url=https://northiowatoday.com/2011/03/28/former-buddy-holly-drummer-carl-bunch-died-positive-and-at-peace/ |access-date=2022-06-09 |website=NorthIowaToday.com |language=en-US}}</ref> To fill in for Bunch, Holly, Valens, and [[Dion DiMucci|Dion]] all took turns drumming for one another.<ref name="WeGoNews">{{cite web |title=Connection to Buddy Holly Death |url=http://www.robertlemon.name/myhurley//links.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100827081351/http://www.robertlemon.name/myhurley/links.htm |archive-date=August 27, 2010 |access-date=December 22, 2020 |publisher=WeGoNews.com}}</ref>

After the February 2, 1959, performance in [[Clear Lake, Iowa]] (which ended around midnight), Holly, Richardson, and Valens flew out of the [[Mason City, Iowa|Mason City]] airport in a small plane that Holly had chartered.{{sfn|Everitt|2004|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=H4TSH_b7IHYC&pg=PA13 13]}} Valens was on the plane since he won a [[coin toss]] with Holly's backup guitarist [[Tommy Allsup]].{{sfn|Everitt|2004|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=H4TSH_b7IHYC&pg=PA14 14]}} Bob Hale, a disc jockey with Mason City's [[KRIB|KRIB-AM]], was [[Master of ceremonies|emceeing]] the concert that night and flipped the coin in the ballroom's side-stage room shortly before the musicians departed for the airport. Valens is apocryphally said to have remarked, "That's the first time I've ever won anything in my life." Holly's bassist, [[Waylon Jennings]], voluntarily gave up his seat on the plane to [[The Big Bopper|J.P. Richardson]], who was ill with the flu.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=yY-qrbtfonUC&dq=coin+toss+valens+allsup&pg=PA97 Lehmer, Larry. ''The Day the Music Died: The Last Tour of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens''], [[Omnibus Press]] (April 1, 2004), ch. 8.</ref> 

At around 12:55&nbsp;a.m. on February 3, 1959, the four-passenger [[Beechcraft Bonanza]], (N3794N), departed for [[Fargo, North Dakota]], and crashed a few minutes after takeoff. The cause was apparently loss of control by the pilot Roger Peterson, who was not qualified for the deteriorating weather.<ref name="CAB1">{{cite report |url=https://www.ntsb.gov/Publictn/1959/CAB_2-3-1959.pdf |title=Aircraft Accident Report |last1=Durfee |first1=James R. |last2=Gurney |first2=Chan |last3=Denny |first3=Harmar D. |last4=Minetti |first4=G. Joseph |last5=Hector |first5=Louis J.|publisher=[[Civil Aeronautics Board]] |date=September 23, 1959 |access-date=February 4, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090226025843/https://www.ntsb.gov/Publictn/1959/CAB_2-3-1959.pdf |archive-date=February 26, 2009}}</ref> The crash killed all four men instantly upon impact. As with Holly, Richardson and Peterson, Valens suffered massive fatal head injuries along with [[Blunt trauma|blunt-force trauma]] to the chest.<ref>{{cite web |title=Death certificates |url=https://www.awesomestories.com/media/user/b5885f23f3.pdf |access-date=June 1, 2015 |website=Awesome Stories}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Coroner's investigation |url=https://www.awesomestories.com/media/user/f24430da16.pdf |access-date=June 1, 2015 |website=Awesome Stories}}</ref> At 17 years old, Valens was the youngest to die in the crash.

The tragedy inspired singer [[Don McLean]] to write his 1971 hit "[[American Pie (song)|American Pie]]", immortalizing February 3 as "The Day the Music Died". Valens was buried at [[San Fernando Mission Cemetery]] in [[Mission Hills, Los Angeles]], California.