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
The Big Bopper 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. It is also possible that he had mechanical problems and was attempting to turn back toward Mason City. The right wingtip of the Beechcraft Bonanza sliced into the frozen ground and sent the aircraft cartwheeling across a cleared cornfield at approximately 170 mph. Holly, Valens, and Richardson were ejected from the plane on impact and probably tumbled along with the wreckage