In the early morning hours of February 3 , 1959 , Buddy Holly was on tour when he , together with Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper , died in an airplane crash . Holly and Santiago had been married for only six months at the time of his death . She learned of his death from the reports on television . A widow after only six months of marriage , she suffered a miscarriage shortly after , reportedly due to psychological trauma . Buddy was interred in Lubbock . Santiago-Holly did not attend the funeral and has never visited the grave site . She told the '' Avalanche-Journal '' : " In a way , I blame myself . I was not feeling well when he left . I was two weeks pregnant , and I wanted Buddy to stay with me , but he had scheduled that tour . It was the only time I was n't with him . And I blame myself because I know that , if only I had gone along , Buddy never would have gotten into that airplane . " Following the miscarriage suffered by Santiago-Holly and the circumstances in which she was informed of his death , a policy was later adopted by authorities not to disclose victims ' names until after their families have been informed
died in an airplane crash
The Day the Music Died
María Elena Holly