Birth Name: Charles Hardin Holley
Date of Birth: September 7, 1936
Place of Birth: Lubbock, Texas, United States
Date of Death: February 3, 1959
Place of Death: Clear Lake, Iowa, United States
Ethnicity: English, as well as Cherokee Native American, Powhatan Native American, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Scots-Irish (Northern Irish), Dutch, remote French
Buddy Holly was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He was the son of Ella Pauline (Drake) and Lawrence Odell Holley. Buddy was married to María Elena (Santiago), who is of Puerto Rican descent.
Buddy is a descendant of two Native American tribes. One of his second great-grandmothers, Mary “Polly” Taylor, was of 5/8 Cherokee descent, with the rest presumed to be mostly English. One of his fifth great-grandmothers, Tame Doe Attakulakula, was of 5/8 Cherokee, 1/4 English, and 1/8 Powhatan descent. This means that Buddy was of 45/1024 Cherokee, 1/1024 Powhatan, and 4.5% Native American, descent, in total.
Buddy’s paternal grandparents were John Hardin Holley (the son of James Paterson Holley and Mary Elizabeth Young) and Willie Ophelia Young (the daughter of William K. Young and Malissa A. Randall).
Buddy’s maternal grandparents were Charles Wesley Drake (the son of James Charles Drake and Sidney Reden Ray) and Eva Laura Perry (the daughter of Franklin Sanford Perry and Lizabeth Manning).
Sources: Genealogies of Buddy Holly – http://www.geni.com
https://familysearch.org