Tuesday, February 3, 2015

The Day the Big Bopper Died

The Big Bopper and two others were killed in a plane crash 56 years ago today.





A couple of years ago, they DUG HIM UP!


"Jay Richardson [the Bopper's son who was born two months after his father died] stepped up beside the upper end [of the coffin].  I stood beside him.  A hush fell over the group as Rodney Landry grasped one edge of the lid and gave a tug.  After nearly half a century in the soggy ground, the lid raised smoothly and silently.  As it did, it revealed one of the most remarkable sights I've ever seen in my career.  What I saw, and what Jay Richardson saw, was not a bare skull or rotting tissue.  What we saw was the Big Bopper himself, complete with his trademark crew cut.  The skin was discolored — a mottled bluish-purple — but the features were instantly recognizable, and bore a striking resemblance to those of the man who stood beside me, getting his first glimpse of his father in the flesh."


Did anyone else feel gypped when we didn't get a peek?



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