Jim Lounsbury also hosted one of the last shows with Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens, in Kenosha, Wisconsin on January 24, 1959, on the Winter Dance Party tour. Later in his career, he became well known as a radio news journalist, ending his career as the national news anchor for UPI Radio News. Lived in Skokie, IL in the early 60's. Daughter: Debbie. Lounsbury retired to Tucson, Arizona in the early 1980s. He and Helen Mason, whom he described as his "biggest fan", traveled around the Southwest in Jim's Cessna 182 airplane which he piloted. Jim occasionally wrote for
Ritchie Valens accident. It is located on private farmland, about one-quarter mile west of the intersection of 315th Street and Gull Avenue, about north of Clear Lake. He also created a similar stainless-steel monument to the three musicians that was installed near the Riverside Ballroom in Green Bay, Wisconsin. That memorial was unveiled on July 17, 2003. A park in Pacoima was renamed in Ritchie Valens' honor in the 1990s. Originally named Paxton Park, a city council member representing Pacoima proposed the renaming to honor Valens so residents will "remember his humble background and emulate his accomplishments." Musician Tommy Allsup started a