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How do you say goodbye if you never got to say hello?

Jay Richardson was born almost three months after his father J.P. Richardson -- better known as the Big Bopper -- died in a violent Iowa plane crash that also killed 1950s rock stars Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens on 'the day the music died,' Feb. 3, 1959. It was rock 'n' roll's first great tragedy.

By the time little Jay was born, the Bopper was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery here. The odds Jay would ever get to meet his father were, oh, next to never.

But don't bet against history. Or science. Or a son's heart.

Jay met his famously dead father last month, the day the music was exhumed. The Big Bopper came back in the land of the living for one day only.

Months ago, Forest Lawn Cemetery had planned only to quietly move the Bopper's gravesite to a more visible location with a life-size statue and historic marker, but the disinterment offered Jay a historic chance to say his first hello, and for forensic experts to examine the pop singer's unautopsied remains 48 years after his death.

With the help of renowned forensic anthropologist Dr. Bill Bass -- who helped positively identify the Lindbergh baby's long-dead remains and founded the Body Farm at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, where he studies human decomposition -- Jay hoped to answer a few unanswered questions about his father's death.

And to introduce himself to his father.

A glorious day

The Bopper's first day above ground in more than 48 years was a glorious one. He died on a black night in light snow. But the day he was disinterred was all Texas spring under a mackerel sky, warm and bright.

Jay, who'll turn 48 next month, had arrived before dawn and sat alone in his truck near the grave. By the time a cemetery backhoe took its first bite of earth from the Bopper's grave, he had gathered with other onlookers -- including rock historian Bill Griggs and the Bopper's one-time radio boss John Neil -- at graveside.

Once the Bopper's inch-thick steel vault was hoisted from its muddy hole, it was taken to a more private workshop area, where it was cleaned and unsealed. A handful of cemetery workers and their somber supervisors hovered around it until the quarter-ton cap was finally lifted off, exposing to the midmorning sun the Bopper's casket, which the world last saw in a photo taken at Broussard's Funeral Home in Beaumont in 1959, sitting next to a funeral wreath sent by U.S. Army Pvt. Elvis Presley.

The casket looked extraordinarily intact after more than 48 years. Its few rusty spots were superficial, but a limey waterline a few inches short of its seal caused some concern.

Inside a nearby shop, away from any prying eyes, funeral director Rodney Landry warned the nine invited onlookers that he was 'inclined to believe there will be more than bones' but that what they were about to see 'will not be a pretty sight.'

The enormous metal building fell deathly silent as Landry unlocked the lid. Although he still didn't know what he would see or how he would respond, Jay stood as close as he could.

Familiar ghost

The lid was lifted and Jay looked down upon a pale-blue face, a familiar ghost.

J.P. Richardson, who was only 28 when he died, was a well-preserved corpse dressed in a black suit and a blue-and-gray striped tie. He wore socks, but no shoes. Under his funeral-home suit, he was encased in a 'unionall,' a mortician's plastic garment that allows only the hands and head to be exposed.

Most remarkably, the Bopper's thick brown hair was still perfectly coifed in his familiar, 1950s crew cut.

But two people lay in the casket.

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We all saw the earthly remains of Jiles Perry Richardson. The gentle and pudgy Beaumont kid nicknamed 'Killer' by his high school football coach.

The chain-smoking, flattopped high schooler who had hung around the radio studio at KTRM until they gave him a job. The kid they simply called 'Jape.'

But the Big Bopper was in there too. The alter ego whom many listeners believed was not Jape Richardson, but a jive-talking black hipster.

Never saw a dime

The shooting star in a leopard-skin jacket who would sell a million records but never see a dime from his greatest hit, 'Chantilly Lace.' The flamboyant joker who carried a pair of dice in his pocket and leg-wrestled backstage with Ritchie Valens.

The unlucky schlub who traded his sleeping bag for a plane ride -- and a casket.

The Bopper's ghost loitered there for everyone, except Jay.

'They didn't bury the Big Bopper. They buried J.P. Richardson,' son Jay quipped after regaining his composure. 'The Bopper never would have worn that tie.'

Several people pitched in to lift the still heavy but fragile body from the old casket onto a gurney where it could be X-rayed by Dr. Bass and two radiologists.

Was the Bopper killed by the impact of the crash? Did he survive and try to go for help, only to die 40 feet from the wreckage, where his body was found? Was he truly a victim in the wild conspiracy theories that there had been gunplay on the plane?

'We're not doing this for history,' Dr. Bass said privately while waiting for the X-rays to be developed. 'We're doing this for a family. We have the ability to solve some of their personal mysteries.'

There was no bullet, the X-rays showed, but few had expected this would turn into a crime-scene investigation anyway. And the Bopper didn't survive the impact even for a moment, Dr. Bass determined. He suffered at least three death-dealing injuries that would have killed him before he took another breath: A crushed skull, a broken neck and a grotesquely mashed rib cage.

Tough decision

Jay has considered crushing the empty 16-gauge steel casket beyond recognition or melting it down to avoid seeing pieces of his father's coffin being traded like Elvis relics on eBay. Then he wondered if the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame might be a safe, respectful home for such a macabre but significant artifact of rock 'n' roll's first great tragedy.

He can't decide, so for now, the empty casket is stored in a secret place, a castoff too gruesome to be a cocktail-conversation piece, too historically intimate to become a hubcap.

When he died, the Bopper had only $8 in a savings account and his most valuable assets were a $400 Dodge sedan and a $100 guitar.

He hadn't yet received a penny of his 'Chantilly Lace' royalties, nor the gold record that was en route. His widow paid $2,648 for his funeral. Today, his royalties earn an estimated $100,000 a year for Jay.

Peace and closure

'I saw my father!' Jay said later. 'I was finally able to get peace for myself and hopefully in the process my father will be able to rest more peacefully.'

Before the Bopper was reburied, Jay and his two sons took a lock of his dad's flattop, as if carrying his living DNA wasn't enough.

And just before he shoveled the first spadeful of fresh earth into his father's new grave -- beside his mother's new grave -- Jay was unable to hold back the tears.

'I've been talking to Dad all day,' he said. 'And after 48 years, he can still amaze me.'

In the outside world, a few people grumbled that the autopsy was an unnecessary intrusion, even for a son. But it was, after all, the son's choice.

'The Big Bopper belonged to the world,' said Randy Steele, a close family friend. 'But Jiles Perry Richardson belonged to Jay.'

And Jay finally got to say his hello.

And goodbye.

Jiles Perry 'J. P.' Richardson Jr. (October 24, 1930 – February 3, 1959), known as The Big Bopper, was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and disc jockey. His best known compositions include 'Chantilly Lace' and 'White Lightning', the latter of which became George Jones' first number-one hit in 1959. Richardson was killed in a plane crash in Clear Lake, Iowa in 1959, along with fellow musicians Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens, and the pilot Roger Peterson.^[1] The accident was famously referred to as 'The Day the Music Died' in Don McLean's 1971 song 'American Pie'.^[2]

Biography[edit]

Early years[edit]

J. P. Richardson was born in Sabine Pass, Texas, the oldest son of oil-field worker Jiles Perry Richardson (1905–1984) and his wife Elise (Stalsby) Richardson (1909–1983). They had two other sons, Cecil and James. The family soon moved to Beaumont, Texas. Richardson graduated from Beaumont High School in 1947 and played on the 'Royal Purple' American football team as a defensive lineman, wearing number 85.^[3] Richardson later was a radio disc jockey while at Lamar College,^[4] where he studied prelaw and was a member of the band and chorus.

Radio[edit]

Richardson worked part-time at Beaumont, Texas radio station KTRM (now KZZB). He was hired by the station full-time in 1949 and quit college. Richardson married Adrianne Joy Fryou on April 18, 1952, and their daughter Debra Joy was born in December 1953, soon after Richardson was promoted to supervisor of announcers at KTRM.

In March 1955 he was drafted into the United States Army and did his basic training at Fort Ord, California. He spent the rest of his two-year service as a radar instructor at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas.

Richardson returned to KTRM radio following his discharge as a corporal in March 1957, where he held down the 'Dishwashers' Serenade' shift from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. One of the station's sponsors wanted Richardson for a new time slot, and suggested an idea for a show. Richardson had seen college students doing a dance called The Bop, and he decided to call himself 'The Big Bopper'. His new radio show ran from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m., and he soon became the station's program director.

In May 1957 he broke the record for continuous on-air broadcasting by 8 minutes. He performed for a total of five days, two hours, and eight minutes from a remote setup in the lobby of the Jefferson Theatre in downtown Beaumont, playing 1,821 records^[5] and taking showers during 5-minute newscasts.^[4]

Richardson is credited for creating the first music video in 1958, and recorded an early example himself.^[5]

Singer and songwriter[edit]

Richardson, who played guitar, began his musical career as a songwriter. George Jones later recorded Richardson's 'White Lightning', which became Jones' first No. 1 country hit in 1959 (#73 on the pop charts). Richardson also wrote 'Running Bear' for Johnny Preston, his friend from Port Arthur, Texas. The inspiration for the song came from Richardson's childhood memory of the Sabine River, where he heard stories about Indian tribes. Richardson sang background on 'Running Bear', but the recording was not released until August 1959, six months after his death. The song became a No. 1 hit for three weeks in January 1960.

The man who launched Richardson as a recording artist was Harold 'Pappy' Daily from Houston. Daily was promotion director for Mercury and Starday Records and signed Richardson to Mercury. Richardson's first single, 'Beggar to a King', had a country flavor, but failed to gain any chart action. He soon cut 'Chantilly Lace' as 'The Big Bopper'^[6] for Pappy Daily's D label. Mercury bought the recording and released it at the end of June, 1958. It slowly began picking up airplay through July and August, and reached No. 6 on the pop charts spending 22 weeks in the national Top 40. In 'Chantilly Lace', Richardson pretends to have a flirting phone conversation with his girlfriend;^[6] the record was comical in nature, with The Big Bopper presenting an exaggerated, but good-natured caricature of a ladies' man.

In November 1958 he scored a second hit, a raucous novelty tune entitled 'The Big Bopper's Wedding', in which Richardson pretends to be getting cold feet at the altar. Both 'Chantilly Lace' and 'Big Bopper's Wedding' were receiving top 40 radio airplay through January 1959.^[7][8]

Death[edit]

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With the success of 'Chantilly Lace', Richardson took time off from KTRM radio and joined Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and Dion and the Belmonts for a 'Winter Dance Party' tour starting on January 23, 1959. On the 11th night of the tour (February 2, 1959), they played at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa. That night, Holly chartered an airplane from Dwyer Flying Service in Mason City, Iowa, intending to fly himself and his bandmates Waylon Jennings and Tommy Allsup to their next tour venue in Moorhead, Minnesota. The musicians had been traveling by bus for over a week, and it had already broken down twice. They were tired, they had not been paid yet, and all of their clothes were dirty. The chartered flight would allow them to avoid another arduous bus ride, arrive early before the Moorhead show, do their laundry, and get some rest. Local pilot Roger Peterson of Dwyer Flying Service (age 21) had agreed to take them. The weather forecast for the Clear Lake area was 18 °F (−8 °C) that night with moderate gusty winds and light scattered snow, and Peterson was fatigued from a 17-hour workday, but he agreed to fly the trip.

Frankie Sardo went to meet the crowd while Holly went into one of the dressing rooms at the Surf Ballroom where he notified Allsup and Jennings that he had chartered a plane to take them to Fargo, North Dakota (which is directly adjacent to Moorhead, Minnesota). On a friendly wager, Valens flipped a coin with Allsup for his seat on the plane—and won. Meanwhile, J.P. Richardson was suffering from the flu and was complaining that the bus was too cold and uncomfortable for him, so Jennings voluntarily surrendered his seat. Upon hearing that his bandmates had given away their plane seats, Holly joked, 'Well, I hope your ol' bus freezes up again.' Jennings jokingly replied, 'Well, I hope your ol' plane crashes.' Those words haunted Jennings for the rest of his life.

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The Clear Lake show ended at around midnight, and Holly, Valens, and Richardson drove to the Mason City Airport, loaded their luggage, and boarded the red and white single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza. Peterson received clearance from the control tower around 12.55 a.m. on February 3, 1959, and they took off—but the plane remained airborne for only a few minutes. It slammed into the ground at full throttle shortly after takeoff about 5 miles outside Mason City in the middle of farm country. The reason remains unknown, but Peterson may have lost his visual reference and thought that he was ascending while he was actually descending. The right wingtip of the Beechcraft Bonanza sliced into the frozen ground and sent the aircraft cartwheeling across a cleared cornfield at approximately 170 miles per hour (270 km/h).

Holly, Valens, and Richardson were ejected from the plane on impact and likely tumbled along with the wreckage across the icy field before the mangled plane came to rest against a barbed-wire fence, while Peterson's body remained entangled in the main mass of plane wreckage. The bodies of Holly and Valens came to rest several feet away from the wreckage on open ground, while Richardson was thrown approximately 100 feet (30 m) beyond the wreckage, across the fence line and into the next cornfield. All three died instantly of massive head and chest injuries. Richardson was 28 years old.

Personal life[edit]

Richardson was survived by his wife Adrienne Joy Wenner (1936–2004) and four-year-old daughter Debra (1955–2010). His son Jay Perry Richardson (1959–2013)^[9] was born two months later in April 1959. Richardson had been building a recording studio in his home in Beaumont, Texas and was planning to invest in a radio station. He had written 20 new songs that he planned to record himself or with other artists. His son also followed a musical career and was known professionally as 'The Big Bopper, Jr.', performing around the world. He toured on the 'Winter Dance Party' tour with Buddy Holly impersonator John Mueller on some of the same stages where his father had performed.

In January 2007 Jay Richardson requested that his father's body be exhumed and an autopsy be performed in response to an internet rumor about guns being fired aboard the aircraft and Richardson initially surviving the crash.^[10] The autopsy was performed by Dr. William M. Bass, a forensic anthropologist at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Richardson was present throughout the autopsy and observed the casket as it was opened; both men were surprised that the remains were well enough preserved to be recognized as those of the late rock star. 'Dad still amazes me 48 years after his death, that he was in remarkable shape,' Richardson told the Associated Press. 'I surprised myself. I handled it better than I thought I would'.^[11] Dr. Bass's findings indicated no signs of foul play. 'There are fractures from head to toe. Massive fractures…. [Richardson] died immediately. He didn't crawl away. He didn't walk away from the plane.'^[11]

Richardson's body was placed in a new casket made by the same company as the original and was reburied next to his wife in Beaumont's Forest Lawn Cemetery. Jay Richardson allowed the old casket to be displayed at the Texas Musicians Museum. In December 2008 he announced that he would be placing the old casket up for auction on eBay, donating a share of the proceeds to the Texas Musicians Museum,^[12] but he downplayed the suggestion in later interviews.^[13] He died of heart failure in 2013.^[14] The family announced:It is with great sadness that we must tell you that Jay P Richardson has passed away. After a long hard fight, JP succumbed on the morning of August 21st, at the age of 54.^[15]

C3 Entertainment handles the rights to the Richardson estate, through an agreement with Jay's widow Patty.^[16]

Compositions[edit]

Richardson's songs composed and recorded include:

• 'Chantilly Lace', No. 6 hit for the Big Bopper
• 'White Lightnin', No. 1 Country hit for George Jones
• 'Treasure of Love', No. 6 Country hit for George Jones
• 'Running Bear', No. 1 hit for Johnny Preston and Sonny James
• 'The Purple People Eater Meets the Witch Doctor'
• 'Little Red Riding Hood'
• 'Walking Through My Dreams' (two versions, one on 45-RPM only, the other on LP)
• 'Beggar to a King' (recorded under his real name), (later recorded by Hank Snow in 1961, it made it to No. 5 on the country singles chart)
• 'Crazy Blues' (recorded under his real name)
• 'Bopper's Boogie Woogie'
• 'That's What I'm Talking About'
• 'Pink Petticoats'
• 'Monkey Song (You Made a Monkey out of Me)'
• 'It's the Truth, Ruth' (two versions, one on 45-RPM only, the other on LP)
• 'Preacher and the Bear'
• 'Someone Watching Over You'
• 'Old Maid'
• 'Strange Kisses'
• 'Teenage Moon'
• 'The Clock'
• 'One More Chance'
• 'She Giggles'
• 'The Big Bopper's Wedding'

Tributes[edit]

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In 1988, Ken Paquette, a Wisconsin fan of the 1950s era, erected a stainless steel monument at the crash site depicting a guitar and a set of three records bearing the names of each of the three performers. It is located on private farmland, about one-quarter-mile west of the intersection of 315th Street and Gull Avenue, about eight miles north of Clear Lake. Paquette also created a similar stainless steel monument to the three near the Riverside Ballroom in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The memorial was unveiled on July 17, 2003.^[17]

J.P. Richardson's pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. The Big Bopper is fondly remembered not only for his distinctive singing and songwriting, but also as a humorist who combined the best elements of country, R&B, and rock 'n' roll.

In 2010, Richardson was inducted into the Iowa Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.^[18]

Richardson's name is mentioned as one of the upcoming musical acts in both the print and television versions of Stephen King's short story 'You Know They Got a Hell of a Band' about a town inhabited by late musical legends. Buddy Holly is subsequently featured in the story.

The Canadian television comedy show SCTV featured a character named 'Sue Bopper-Simpson', a fictional daughter of the Big Bopper, played by Catherine O'Hara. The character was a part-time real estate agent who appeared in a musical titled I'm Taking My Own Head, Screwing It on Right, and No Guy's Gonna Tell Me That It Ain't.

Shortly after the fatal plane crash, Tommy Dee wrote and recorded a song titled 'Three Stars' in tribute to Richardson, Holly, and Valens. It was later recorded by Eddie Cochran, a friend of the three musicians who himself would die prematurely a year later in an automobile crash.

Van Halen's song 'Good Enough' from their 1986 album 5150 begins with singer Sammy Hagar calling out 'Hello Baby!', imitating the Big Bopper's hook in 'Chantilly Lace'. Phil Lewis of L.A. Guns does the same in their song '17 Crash' from their 1989 album Cocked & Loaded.

The Simpsons episode 'Sideshow Bob Roberts' features a gravestone of The Big Bopper in Springfield that Sideshow Bob (Kelsey Grammer) used to help commit voter fraud and become elected for mayor. The gravestone is a bust of the Big Bopper holding a telephone receiver, with the epitaph reading 'The Big Bopper', his birth and death years (1930–1959), then a parody on the memorable hook reading 'Gooooodbye, baby'. He also appeared as a vampire holding a telephone in an Itchy and Scratchy cartoon during the episode 'C.E.D'oh'.

An episode of The X-Files features the Big Bopper. The episode is called 'Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose'.

The Big Bopper's estate is currently owned by his daughter-in-law, Patty Richardson, and managed by C3 Entertainment, a company that specializes in classic brands. C3 Entertainment currently manages an official tribute band featuring a Big Bopper impersonator, touring with the Winter Dance Party.^{[citation needed]} In 2019, the Winter Dance Party debuted the film Bopper and Me.^[19]

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Book, film, and stage[edit]

In Not Fade Away, a turbulent road novel taking place at the end of the fifties, Jim Dodge narrates an eventful trip to the Big Bopper's grave.^[20]

Richardson was portrayed by Gailard Sartain in The Buddy Holly Story, Stephen Lee in La Bamba, and John Ennis in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.

'Chantilly Lace' is used in the movies True Romance and American Graffiti as well as 'High Spirits'.^[21]

The character Dragoon is referenced as being the Big Bopper, as is his partner/body host Red Mantle being Buddy Holly in the animated series The Venture Bros.

References[edit]

1. ^'1959: Buddy Holly killed in air crash'. On This Day. London: BBC. February 3, 1959. Retrieved November 2, 2008.
2. ^Thimou, Theodore (December 28, 2006). 'Preview: The Twice-Famous Don McLean Plays Rams Head'. Bay Weekly. Archived from the original on June 13, 2008. Retrieved September 11, 2008.
3. ^Big Bopper: From Head Waiter To Rock'N'Roll Hero. T Knight – Goldmine, 1989
4. ^ ^ab'Bopper and Me'.
5. ^ ^ab'J.P. 'The Big Bopper' Richardson'. Internet Accuracy Project. Retrieved January 21, 2007.
6. ^ ^abGilliland, John (1969). 'Show 14 – Big Rock Candy Mountain: Rock 'n' roll in the late fifties'(audio). Pop Chronicles. University of North Texas Libraries.
7. ^Warden, Tim. 'ARSA – The Radio Surveys / Record Charts Site'. las-solanas.com. Archived from the original on February 27, 2017. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
8. ^Warden, Tim. 'ARSA – The Radio Surveys / Record Charts Site'. las-solanas.com. Archived from the original on February 27, 2017. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
9. ^[1]
10. ^'Autopsy of 'Big Bopper' to Address Rumors About 1959 Plane Crash'. Associated Press. January 18, 2007.
11. ^ ^abDavis, Elizabeth A. (March 7, 2007). '48 Years Later, Big Bopper Rumors Buried'. Associated Press. Retrieved March 8, 2007.^{[dead link]}
12. ^Franscell, Ron (December 27, 2008). 'Big Bopper's casket a macabre marketable on eBay'. Beaumontenterprise.com. Retrieved May 4, 2015.
13. ^Guy, Colin (January 14, 2009). 'Big Bopper's casket appears on eBay, but its not for sale'. Beaumontenterprise.com. Retrieved May 4, 2015.
14. ^Bird, Laura. 'Jay Richardson, son of The Big Bopper, dies'. Mason City Globe Gazette.
15. ^https://www.12newsnow.com/article/news/big-bopper-jr-54-passes-away/502-270089098>
16. ^'The Big Bopper'. C3entertainment.com.
17. ^Jordan, Jennifer (April 11, 2007). 'The Day the Music Died'. ArticlesTree. Archived from the original on February 7, 2012.
18. ^'Big Bopper'.
19. ^''The Big Bopper' documentary premieres in Clear Lake this weekend (with photos) Local Entertainment'. globegazette.com. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
20. ^Dodge, Jim (1987), Not Fade Away, Atlantic Monthly Press + r. Grove Press, 1998 and Canongate books, 2004.
21. ^Lyrical commentaries: Learning from popular music. BL Cooper – Music Educators Journal, 1991 – JSTOR

Further reading[edit]

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• Escott, Colin (1998). 'The Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson)'. In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 35, ISBN978-0195395631

External links[edit]

• Richardson, Jiles Perry from the Handbook of Texas Online
• J.P. Richardson discography at Discogs
• The Big Bopper at Find a Grave

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