It’s so easy to walk in Holly’s footsteps
Buddy Holly, second from right, is pictured in his Lubbock boyhood neighborhood with his family, from left, mother Ella, father L.O., Buddy and friend Jack Neal.
There is an irresistible attraction about the sites in the Lubbock area where Buddy Holly used to walk before he became a legend.
Now, visitors to Lubbock from around the world start at the Buddy Holly Center at 1801 Crickets Ave., before extending their nostalgic search around town.
The church
He was born in Lubbock Sept. 7, 1936, and while growing up attended the Tabernacle Baptist Church with his family.
The church was located at 15th Street and Avenue N, near the downtown sector, and didn’t move to 1911 34th St. until 1955. It was the site of his funeral services on Feb. 7, 1959.
The schools
In school, Buddy Holly may have been a typical first-grader. A report card from Roscoe Wilson Elementary, 25th Street and Elgin Avenue, contained a note from his teacher: “Buddy bothers his neighbors in school.”
He was a performer of sorts as early as his attendance at Roosevelt School, which is located about four miles north of Ransom Canyon. The school’s yearbook featured Buddy and Barbara Denning as King and Queen of the Sixth Grade.
This plaque outside of Roscoe Wilson Elementary School commemorates Buddy Holly's days attending the school.
Buddy wasn’t afraid to single out a teacher for special honor, even if the praise may have been dubious.
At Hutchinson Junior High, located at 31st Street and Canton Avenue, he and a friend, Bob Montgomery, performed for a Parents Night program. Their song, dedicated to a particular teacher, was “Too Old to Cut the Mustard.”
He entered Lubbock High School, 19th Street and Avenue T, as a sophomore in 1952, sang in the choir and began thinking of a career in Western music.
The school still has a small exhibit area in the main hallway that includes Buddy Holly memorabilia.
Other sites
His penchant for playing energetic music with friends contributed to the eventual informal naming of the Buddy Holly Recreation Area. It is located about half a mile north of U.S. 84, and just to the west of University Avenue in a part of the Canyon Lakes system.
According to family tradition, Buddy’s guitar sessions with friends were noisy, and to spare parents’ nerves, they took their music to a tin barn in what is now known as the Buddy Holly Recreation Area.
Buddy performed for about a year at the American Legion Youth Center, which was located at Second Street and University Avenue.
After the Crickets band was formed, the group performed at the Village Theater, located at 2329 34th St.
Performances also took place at the Cotton Club, which at the time was in operation on East 50th Street and Southeast Drive.
He opened for such rising stars as Bill Haley and Elvis Presley at the Panhandle-South Plains Fairgrounds, 10th Street and Avenue A.
At the time of his stellar hit, “That’ll Be the Day,” Holly and his family lived at 1305 37th St. The home, though no longer owned by the family, is still there and clearly marked with the address. The Buddy Holly Center administrators ask visitors to simply drive by.
Buddy recorded music, as did Roy Orbison and Waylon Jennings, at Norman Petty Recording Studio, 1313 W. Seventh St. in Clovis, N.M., a 90-minute drive northwest of Lubbock on U.S. 84 (see pages 16-18).
But the site that best brings all of the Buddy Holly story together is the point of beginning: The Buddy Holly Center, where a time line traces his career, and where the main gallery is shaped like a guitar.
