A former colleague of mine from Des Moines wrote the definitive book about the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper 55 years ago. I used that as a source for this piece. The hardest part: Finding a way to keep it from being a black-and-white page. I thought the light purple tint gave just the right tinge of frozen beanfield feel to the page. Feb. 3, 2014