Not That Kind of Girl The life and loves of Echo McGuire ’58
I
t’s not often that one’s high
school sweetheart is still a talking point 60 years later, but such was a the case for Echo (McGuire ’59) Griffith, whose first love was none other than the recording legend Charles Hardin (Buddy) Holly. Echo and Buddy met in elementary school. They were Lubbock High School freshmen when they first dated, and continued to date after graduating in 1955. Echo’s first year of college was at Abilene Christian University. She and her roommate then decided to transfer to York College; it was a longer drive to Nebraska, but Buddy continued to visit her. “Being so far away from Lubbock (where Holly still lived), put a strain on my relationship with Buddy,” she said in an interview for a publication from the Eastern New Mexico University. “During the fall semester, he drove up to visit me in York, which helped to break up the long term away from home. Then, of course, we were together while I was in Lubbock for the Christmas vacation.” When she returned to York that spring, she met fellow YC student Ronald Griffith, another musician. Other students warned Ronald that Echo was Buddy Holly’s girlfriend. Holly was already famous by this time — he had several hit records, been on the Ed Sullivan Show and had toured in the United States and abroad. By the time Echo went home for Christmas in her junior year, she realized that she and Holly were headed in two different directions. Echo couldn’t see herself as the wife of a rock star and she broke up with him. Soon after the breakup, Holly wrote the song, “Peggy Sue Got Married.” Griffith told the New Mexico publication that many people thought the song was about her and people ask her if she is Peggy Sue, but she says Peggy Sue was actually the girlfriend of the drummer in Holly’s band. “Later that semester,” said Echo, “Ron and I began to date and found that we shared many ideas, goals and interests.” Echo married Ronald in 1958 and they had three children. That same year, Buddy married Maria Santiago. On Feb. 3, 1959, Buddy was tragically killed in an airplane crash near Mason City, Iowa. Echo told Texas Monthly reporter Joe Nick Patoski, “I have felt like I’ve had the call of God all my life. Buddy and I were headed in different directions.” Echo and Ron went on to build a life of ministry.
Long-time Holly supporter Randy Steele concluded, “Echo was devoted to the church and Christian causes. Buddy was into country and rock ‘n’ roll music." One story that exemplifies this difference involves the King of Rock and Roll. Buddy had opened for Elvis Presley’s show in Lubbock and following the show he took Echo backstage to meet Presley. When Elvis asked Echo if he could kiss her, she turned him down. “I wasn’t that kind of girl,” she explained in the New Mexico interview. Asked how she learned of Buddy’s fatal plane crash, Echo said, “I was 22. My husband and I had moved to Missoula, Montana, where I was a senior education major at the University of Montana. I was getting ready for school. I was ‘practice teaching’ second grade that semester. My mother called long distance early that morning and gave me the devastating news.” She did say that she regrets burning the many letters Buddy had written to her while she was in college. “I thought that was the honorable thing to do,” she noted. “I didn’t know he was going to be famous.” “When meeting Echo, she captured your attention immediately,” said Randy Steele. “She was petite, bright-eyed and possessed a beautiful smile and a warm personality. It was easy to picture the teenager that Buddy Holly fell for. She was proud of her life — and she was dedicated to her husband, her family and her faith. She definitely was special.” At the Buddy Holly Center in Lubbock, you can view the Echo McGuire showcase on display, which includes her prom dress, a necklace Buddy gave her and the stuffed hound dog he and first performing partner Bob Montgomery signed. Echo passed away on October 29 at the age of 80. Condolences and cards can be sent to Echo’s husband, Ron Griffith, at 1112 N Guadalupe, Carlsbad, N.M., 88220. n (*Some of this article is reprinted with the permission of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)
(right) Officers representing the York College junior class were Roy Gulley, Tom Schulz, and Echo McGuire.