Waylon Jennings

AKA:
Hoss
Birth Name:
Wayland Arnold Jennings
Birth Date:
June 15, 1937
Birth Place:
Littlefield, Texas
Death Date:
February 13, 2002
Place of Death:
1142 W Sunrise Place, Chandler, Arizona
Age:
64
Cause of Death:
Diabetic complications
Cemetery Name:
Mesa Cemetery
Claim to Fame:
Music
Associates:
Waylon Jennings was the "outlaw" singer, songwriter and musician who was one of the founding pioneers of the Outlaw Movement in country music in the 1970s. A protégé of Buddy Holly and devotee of Hank Williams, he sold more than 40 million records, won 2 Grammy Awards, multiple Country Music Association awards including Male Vocalist of the Year, and was Ranked #7 in Rolling Stone's Top 100 Greatest Country Artists of All Time in a career spanning six decades.

The Winter Dance Party

The Winter Dance Party was the infamous, ill-fated tour through the mid-west in the dead of winter featuring Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper (among others). Waylon Jennings was a member of the Buddy Holly band (note Waylon was not a member of the Crickets) during the tour. Before their performance at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, Holly chartered a four-seat Beechcraft Bonanza airplane from Dwyer Flying Service in Mason City, Iowa, for himself, Jennings, and Tommy Allsup, to avoid the long bus trip to their next venue in Moorhead, Minnesota. Following the Clear Lake show (which ended around midnight), Allsup lost a coin toss and gave up his seat on the charter plane to Ritchie Valens, while Jennings voluntarily gave up his seat to J. P. Richardson, known as The Big Bopper, who was suffering from the flu and complaining about how cold and uncomfortable the tour bus was for a man of his size.

When Holly learned that his bandmates had given up their seats on the plane and had chosen to take the bus rather than fly, a friendly banter between Holly and Jennings ensued: Holly jokingly told Jennings, “Well, I hope your ol’ bus freezes up!” Jennings jokingly replied, “Well, I hope your ol’ plane crashes!”[32] Less than an hour and a half later, shortly after 1:00 am on February 3, 1959, Holly’s charter plane crashed at full throttle into a cornfield outside Mason City, instantly killing all on board.

Those words, uttered in jest, haunted Jennings for decades to come.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Mesa Cemetery

1212 N. Center Street

Mesa, Arizona, 85201

USA

North America

Map:

Map of Mesa Cemetery in Mesa Arizona
Map of Mesa Cemetery in Mesa Arizona

Grave Location:

Plot 766

Grave Location Description

As you enter the cemetery you will find, in order, streets 1 through 12 and running perpendicular streets A, B, C and D. Look for the intersection of 9th Street and “B” Street and walk along 9th Street and look in the 4th row from the road and south of “B” Street behind the 6th tree for the final resting place of the legendary Waylon Jennings.

Grave Location GPS

33.438100333, -111.8357513822

Visiting The Grave:

Photos:

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Booker Little Jr.

popular name: Booker Little Jr.

date_of_death: October 5, 1961

age: 23

cause_of_death: Complications from uremia caused by kidney failure

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Booker Little, twenty-three year-old composer, arranger and trumpet player has lately come to demonstrate, in recordings and as the musical director of the Max Roach group, a talent that was taken too early. When he died suddenly at the age of 23 he was one of the most promising jazz trumpeters working with Max Roach, Eric Dolphy and John Coltrane. After years of physical pain, Little died of complications resulting from kidney failure on October 5, 1961, in New York City at the age 23. He was survived by his wife, two sons Booker T. III and Larry Cornelius, and two daughters Cornelia and Ana Dorsey.

Big Maybelle

popular name: Big Maybelle

date_of_death: January 23, 1972

age: 47

cause_of_death: Diabetic coma

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Her impressive stature matching the sheer soulful power of her massive vocal talent, Big Maybelle was one of the premier R&B chanteuses of the 1950s. Her deep, gravelly voice was as singular as her recorded output for Okeh and Savoy, which ranged from juke joint blues to pop-infused ballads.

Leroy Carr

popular name: Leroy Carr

date_of_death: April 29, 1935

age: 30

cause_of_death: Complications of nephritis due to alcoholism

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Leroy Carr, together with Scrapper Blackwell are arguably the two most underrated blues musicians of the 1920s and 1930s. What is undeniable is the two together created some of the most recorded blues classics including How Long, How Long Blues, Mean Mistreater Mama and When the Sun Goes Down

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