The Big Bopper 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. 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. Richardson was portrayed by Gailard Sartain in "The Buddy Holly Story", Stephen Lee in "La Bamba", and John Ennis in "". On the London stage, Richardson has been portrayed by John Simon Rawlings and
The Big Bopper 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 beyond the wreckage, across the fence line and into the next cornfield, wearing only a red-checked flannel shirt and light blue cotton pants. All three died instantly of massive head and chest injuries. Richardson was survived by his wife Adrienne Joy Wenner (1936-2004) and five year-old daughter Debra