Peggy Sue Gerron, the woman whose name Buddy Holly immortalised with his classic 1957 track ‘Peggy Sue’, has passed away at the age of 78.
As the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reports, Peggy Sue Gerron passed away on Monday at the University Medical Center in Lubbock, Texas.
Peggy Gerron was first introduced to Buddy Holly back in the ’50s when she was still a student at Holly’s old high school.
“He ran over to me, guitar in one hand, amp in the other, and said, ‘I don’t have time to pick you up, but you sure are pretty’, before he ran off,” Gerron explained to the BBC back in 2009. “So another girl came and helped me pick up my books and she said, ‘Do you know who that was? That was Buddy Holly.'”
Weeks later, Peggy Sue found herself dating her future husband Jerry Allison (who was a drummer for Buddy Holly’s group The Crickets), who introduced her to his friend Buddy. “He started laughing,” Gerron recalled. “Jerry asked him what was so funny, and he said ‘I’ve already overwhelmed your Peggy Sue.'”
Buddy Holly soon recorded his classic track in mid-1957, by which point it was still known under its original title of ‘Cindy Lou’. However, in an attempt to impress Gerron (who had temporarily broken up with Jerry Allison), Holly reportedly changed the title to ‘Peggy Sue’.
“I was just delighted, I thought it was a fascinating song,” explained Gerron. “It’s really hard to stand still when you’re listening to Peggy Sue.”
Buddy Holly later wrote a sequel to the track, titled ‘Peggy Sue Got Married’, which was released as a posthumous single in 1959, just months after his tragic passing.
Peggy Sue Gerron is survived by her children and grandchildren, who have asked that further details about her passing be kept private.
Check out Buddy Holly’s classic tune, ‘Peggy Sue’:
