Janice Brooks
From:
Pleasant Gap Pa
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Posted 10 Jan 2004 2:25 pm |
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Friends, Family Remember The Bopper's Widow
>>>>
>>>> BEAUMONT - If people can die of a broken heart, Adrianne "Teetsie"
>>>> Richardson Wenner did, her son Jay Richardson said from his home in
>>>> Houston Thursday after learning of her death Wednesday, January 7,
> 2004.
>>>>
>>>> The woman, brushed by fame when her young husband, J.P. Richardson,
>>>> known as "The Big Bopper," was killed in an airplane accident in 1959
>>>> shortly after being catapulted to celebrity in the music world, never
>>>> really stopped mourning, her son said.
>>>>
>>>> The Big Bopper started his career as a Beaumont radio disc jockey. In
>>>> addition to writing George Jones' hit "White Lightnin'," he also scored
>>>> a huge national hit single with his own smash "Chantilly Lace."
>>>>
>>>> His widow's death came almost to the very day 52 years ago she met
>>>> Richardson, when visiting in Beaumont. It was a meeting that impacted
>>>> her life forever more, Richardson said.
>>>>
>>>> "Her sister was pregnant, and my mother was sent to Beaumont to help
>>>> her. Mother heard him on the (local) radio. It so happened my uncle
> knew
>>>> someone at the radio station and called him up, and then invited (the
>>>> Bopper) over for dinner. That was January 1952, and they were married
> in
>>>> April."
>>>>
>>>> Teetsie and J.P. "Big Bopper" Richardson were making their home on
>>>> Detroit Street in Port Arthur in 1959 when the news came that he had
>>>> died in a plane crash transporting him and two other rockers - Buddy
>>>> Holly and Ritchie Valens - from one concert to another.
>>>>
>>>> Richardson said his mother made a lot of friends in Beaumont throughout
>>>> her life.
>>>>
>>>> "She fed the town, whenever there was a gathering place, a big event,
> we
>>>> hosted anything that was going on," he said. And many people have
> tasted
>>>> Wenner's Cajun cooking.
>>>>
>>>> "A lot of people have had mama's cooking. I'm expecting a big turnout
>>>> (at her funeral) because she touched the lives of a lot of people,"
>>>> Richardson said.
>>>>
>>>> Wenner died at her Beaumont home, and at this writing the cause of
> death
>>>> was not published, but Richardson said although "she had a good time"
>>>> and "was a very colorful person," he believed that his father's
> untimely
>>>> death overshadowed everything in her life.
>>>>
>>>> "The anniversaries, certain times of the year, every year, were just
>>>> very, very difficult for her," he said. "I don't know what the coroner
>>>> is going to say, but I know she died of a broken heart, whatever else
>>>> people tell me."
>>>>
>>>> Jay Richardson has a sister Debra Joy, and half-siblings from his
>>>> mother's second marriage to Andrew Wenner - Joseph, Jerry, James and
>>>> Denise Henke Wenner.
>>>>
>>>> "She was just an all-American mom, and a great Cajun cook," Joseph
>>>> Wenner said while arrangements were being made at Broussard's Thursday
>>>> for her funeral.
>>>>
>>>> Richardson would eventually wend his way into the entertainment world,
>>>> at age 37, to form a "Big Bopper Jr." act, that he brought to Beaumont
>>>> in November in a tribute to his father, Holly, and Valens, the trio
>>>> killed while on their Winter Dance Party Tour in '59.
>>>>
>>>> Was Teetsie influential in his decision?
>>>>
>>>> "She was instrumental in my not doing it until I was 37 years old,"
>>>> Richardson said, "because mother never wanted me in the business, that
>>>> she felt took Dad from her. But once I did, she embraced it."
>>>>
>>>> Pat Galloway, longtime friend and neighbor of Teetsie Wenner, said she
>>>> had spoken with Wenner when the two were attending her son's
> performance
>>>> in Beaumont in November.
>>>>
>>>> "That's one fine lady, and I'm gonna miss her very much," Galloway
> said.
>>>> "She loved her kids; she loved her grandchildren. She was so down to
>>>> earth, never negative, and spunky, and always told you the truth.
> That's
>>>> why I loved her. One of those types of friends everyone wishes they
>>>> had."
>>>>
>>>> Visitation will be at Broussard's Chapel on McFaddin Friday at 6 p.m.;
>>>> services will be held Saturday at 1 p.m. at St. Anthony Cathedral, and
>>>> burial will be at Forest Lawn Memorial Park.
>>>
>>>
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Janice "Busgal" Brooks
ICQ 44729047
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