Donna Was Her Name

Seven years ago (already!), my high school graduation class celebrated their 50th reunion. Yesterday my friend Ellen shared this photo of six of us taken that day.

It was as I was naming everyone, Ellen, Donna, Ramona, Donna, Donna, Glenda, that I realized how many Donnas there were in our class. (Also, if the third Donna and Glenda had traded places it would have made naming everyone more lyrical - Ellen, Donna, Ramona, Donna, Glenda, Donna - or do I mean more even?)

There were six Donna's in our class. At the time of our 50th class reunion, five of them were, and still are, living. The sixth died of cancer in 2007.
During the decade of our births (1940's), Donna was the 17th most popular girl's name. Ellen was 64th and Glenda was 92nd. Ramona didn't even register in the top 200. 😢

During the second semester of our sophomore year, the song Donna, by Ritchie Valens, was moving up the charts as was its flip side, La Bamba. I remember going to class on February 3, 1959 and seeing one of the Donnas (not one of the three in the picture) crying. Naturally everyone (well, at least the girls) wondered why she was crying. When she said it was because Ritchie Valens had been killed in a plane crash, it still didn't register with me. "Who's Ritchie Valens?", was my first thought, then she related what I hadn't yet heard and what was later to become known as The Day the Music Died.

Obviously, I wasn't as up on the music scene as she was. I was more interested in the local news of a fire in one of the town's stores that same night. Also, one of my best friends, one of the other Donnas, wasn't crying and carrying on about Valens' death. We were sadder about Buddy Holly and 'The Big Bopper', J. P. Richardson who also died in the plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.

What I have always thought, but now know can't be right, was that seeing Donna F. crying and why, occurred during typing class on the third floor, southwest corner of the h.s. building. But I didn't take typing my sophomore year - another one of my imperfect memories. My diary for that day doesn't even mention the plane crash, but it does the downtown business fire. Four days later I came down with the measles and didn't go back to school for two weeks. My biggest concern then was getting my make-up lessons done.

I had a girl
Donna was her name
Since she left me
I've never been the same
'Cause I love my girl
Donna, where can you be?
Oh, Donna Oh, Donna