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 Ritchie Valens Richard Steven Valenzuela (May 13, 1941 – February 3, 1959), known professionally as Ritchie Valens, was a Mexican American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. A rock and roll pioneer and a forefather of the Chicano rock movement, Valens' recording career lasted eight months, as it abruptly ended when he died in a plane crash. During this time, he had several hits, most notably "La Bamba", which he had adapted from a Mexican folk song. Valens transformed the song into one with a rock rhythm and beat, and it became a hit in 1958, making Valens a pioneer of the