Springfield, Ill.

(The State Journal)

Like many others who were teenagers at the time, Mildred Carson remembers Feb. 3, 1959, very well.

For millions of people, that date has become known - thanks to Don McLean's 1971 song "American Pie" - as the day the music died. For Carson, it was the day she didn't go to work.

Then 19, Carson was too upset over the deaths early that morning of singers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson that she couldn't make it to her job at Franklin Life.

Like many other teens in Springfield, Carson had bought a ticket for the scheduled Feb. 15 concert by Holly, Valens, the Big Bopper and others at the Illinois State Armory.

Unlike thousands of others, she kept her ticket. Now she and her husband Ed hope to find a buyer for what might be considered the Holy Grail of central Illinois rock 'n' roll memorabilia: a ticket to a concert doomed never to happen.

"It still brings tears to my eyes," says Carson, of Sherman. "We really loved those guys."

Her memory jogged by an article last week in The State Journal-Register, Carson dug up the old scrapbook in which she had carefully saved tickets, news clippings, cards and other items from her teens and early 20s.

There, beneath a ticket for a Connie Francis concert at the Armory on Dec. 7, 1958, and a ticket for a Hilltoppers concert in her native Centralia, Carson found her Buddy Holly ticket. It was neatly glued to the page along with her own typed notes about the fatal crash. Like the other tickets on the page, the "Shower of Stars" ticket resembles a business card in its size and simplicity.

Its price was $1, with proceeds to benefit United Cerebral Palsy.

Its value today is unknown.

Mark Kessler, co-owner of Recycled Records and one of the area's leading collectors and dealers of rock 'n' roll memorabilia, said he has never seen a ticket to Holly and company's ill-fated Springfield concert. He has spoken to people who had them and did not save them, he said.

"It's worth what someone is willing to pay for it," Kessler said. "There are a lot of Buddy Holly collectors out there. There should be reasonable interest in it." The ticket is something of an anomaly, he noted, because it was not a mass-produced item - like a record - whose value can be tracked. It also appears to be a one-of-a-kind, because others apparently have not surfaced.

Prairie Dog Productions out of Lubbock, TX agrees; “There are 3 known original posters to exist from the tour. They are valued at anywhere from $7000-10,000. A signed 45 by all of the artists exists and is valued at approx. $10,000 also. I’ve really seen a wide variation of prices for unused classic concert tickets, so I don’t have much of a clue on this one”.

Mildred Carson said she attaches no particular sentimental value to the ticket itself, which she had forgotten about until last week. The meaning for her is in the memory of the performers named on it and their music.

"The Big Bopper was my favorite. He was a big ol' guy, and it seemed like he had to put forth a lot of energy for a guy his size." Valens, too, had a special place in her heart. The 17-year-old Valens was known for his devotion to his mother.

"I lost my father when I was young, so I know what it's like to grow up like that," she says.

Ed Carson had joined the army and was at Fort Dix, N.J., awaiting deployment to Germany when he learned of the fatal crash. He and Mildred had been dating at the time, and the music of the day was one of the things that bound them. They often attended the Shower of Stars dances at the Armory, and music was one of the things they discussed in letters after his departure.

"I remember you being so excited they were coming to town," Ed remarked to his wife as they pored over the scrapbook. "You were going to tell me all about it after the show."

The Winter Dance Party Tour continued after the deaths of Holly, Valens and Richardson. The show in Springfield featured Fabian, Bill Parsons and Jimmy Clanton replacing the headliners. Dion and the Belmonts, Frankie Sardo and Holly's backing band, the Crickets - all on the original bill - also performed.

Though 8,000 people attended two shows here, Mildred was not among them. She knew the concert would only remind her of the performers she was not seeing. So she stayed at home, and her ticket went unused.

It may prove to be the best dollar she ever wasted.

The Springfield Show...Feb.15th, 1959

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