The Holley Family

A tribute to The Holley family, with profiles of Buddy's folks. They were all very supportive of Buddy Holly and his music, they helped him out emotionally, financially and artistically.  Just very nice people indeed.

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Buddy Holly's real name was Charles Hardin Holley. His father was Lawrence Odel Holley (born 4th Nov 1901-Died 8th July 1985) and his mother, Ella Pauline Drake Holley  (nee Drake, born 29th Aug 1902-Died 20th May 1990) had four children, Buddy being the youngest. Brothers Travis and Larry and a sister, Patricia. Mr Holley was born in Cooper, Texas and moved to Dallas when he was young. He would later work as a Carpenter, a Tailor, and also a Cook.  By the time Buddy was born, they lived at 1911 6th Street, Lubbock, Texas, then later moved to the family home where Buddy had made some early demos and jammed with his muso pals.

 

Mr Holley took a stroke in 1970 and Mrs Holley was quite musical, and she actually contributed to some of Buddy's song lyrics.  After Buddy's death, Mr Holley helped to produce and manage Niki Sullivan (former Crickets rhythm guitarist) in his own music career, with his band then, called The Hollyhawks.

 

The whole family was very supportive of Buddy Holly's talent and music career.  They were very proud of him. Travis and Larry always looked out for him, Travis taught him some basic chords on guitar when he was young and Travis leant Buddy circa £1000 to buy a new guitar (Fender Stratocaster), amp and new clothes, to upgrade his style, look and sound, as they were going to record in Nashville and need to look professional. A thousand bucks back in 1954 was  A LOT of money then ! But Travis gave it to him. They absolutely loved their little brother and were devastated when they found out Buddy was killed in the plane crash. They never fully recovered from that traumatic event and they maintained their support up until they died.

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Profiles & Info Coming Soon