While growing up, Valens attended Pacoima Junior High School, now Pacoima Middle School. He also studied at San Fernando High School. Ritchie started singing professionally when he was about 15.

Ritchie Valens was rescued from obscurity by a 1987 ... Print interviews in that era were brief. Valens was in high school, his life and personality still in flux. And his public life was short.

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin – “The Day the Music Died” is being remembered in a new way.