As a receptionist at Peermusic, Maria Elena is believed to have met musician
Buddy Holly in August 1957 when as rising stars he and
the Crickets first visited Peer Southern Music in the
Brill Building at 1619 Broadway to meet their publishing manager Murray Deutch, who was Maria's boss. On June 19, 1958, just before recording a cover of the
Bobby Darin song "
Early in the Morning" in New York's Pythian Temple, Holly asked her out on a date. Santiago had never been out on a date and told Holly she would have to ask her aunt for permission, which he received promptly. Five hours into their first date, Buddy handed a rose to Maria and asked her to marry him. On August 15, 1958, not two months after their first date, she married Holly at Tabernacle Baptist Church in his hometown of
Lubbock, Texas. They settled down in Lubbock until Buddy broke up with the Crickets, and they moved to New York. Santiago-Holly went on one tour (October 1958) with her husband and took on promotional duties. Santiago told Holly: "I don't want to sit around all the time, waiting for handouts from Norman Petty." Eventually, the two of them "visited Petty at the studio to end their partnership, and seek his unpaid royalties." Santiago "recounted that Petty told his young protege, "You know what, Buddy? I'm gonna say this to you. I'd rather see you dead than to give you the money now." In the early morning hours of February 3, 1959, Buddy Holly was on tour when he and fellow musicians
Ritchie Valens and
The Big Bopper died in
an airplane crash along with pilot Roger Peterson outside
Clear Lake, Iowa. At the time, Holly and Santiago had been married for only five months, and she learned of his death from the reports on television. As a result of
psychological trauma from the incident, Santiago
miscarried with her husband's child on February 4. Her husband was interred in Lubbock. Santiago-Holly did not attend the funeral and has never visited the grave site. In an interview with the
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, she later said, "In a way, I blame myself. I was not feeling well when he left. I was two weeks pregnant, and I wanted Buddy to stay with me, but he had scheduled that tour. It was the only time I wasn't with him. And I blame myself because I know that, if only I had gone along, Buddy never would have gotten into that airplane." Following the miscarriage suffered by Santiago-Holly and the circumstances in which she was informed of his death, a policy was later adopted by authorities not to disclose victims' names until after their families have been informed. ==Later years==