Ritchie Valens and ‘Donna’

Feb. 5, 1959: Here’s a story I neglected to post in my original coverage of “The Day the Music Died,” an interview with Donna Ludwig of Granada Hills, the subject of Ritchie Valens’ song “Donna.”  The Times said: While in one of their long telephone conversations one night last September, Donna said, she chided him about writing that promised song for her. "While we were talking, right there on the telephone, he wrote the words to 'Donna' and he read them to me. "He called me the next night and sang the song to me and played the guitar. It was wonderful. I didn't believe it was going to be recorded."