| Celebrated Name: | Maria Elena Holly |
| Real Name/Full Name: | Maria Elena Santiago |
| Gender: | Female |
| Age: | 88 years old |
| Birth Date: | 20th December 1932 |
| Birth Place: | San Juan, Puerto Rico |
| Nationality: | Puerto Rican-American |
| Height: | 1.58m |
| Weight: | 68kgs |
| Sexual Orientation: | Straight |
| Marital Status: | Divorced |
| Husband/Spouse (Name): | Buddy Holly (m. 1958, died 1959) Joe Diaz (m. 1963, divorced) |
| Children/Kids (Son and Daughter): | Yes |
| Dating/Boyfriend (Name): | N/A |
| Is Maria Elena Holly Lesbian? | No |
| Profession: | Businesswoman |
| Salary: | N/A |
| Net Worth in 2024: | $24 million |
| Last Updated: | December 2024 |
Maria Elena is an American businesswoman who runs Buddy-Holy Educational Foundation. She is better known to be the wife and widow of rock and roll star Buddy Holly. After the death of her husband, she remarried and had three children. To this day, she owns righto her husband’s image, trademark, name and any other intellectual property. At one time, she sued Peggy Sue Gerron after she published her autobiography. She is known of her no-nonsense approach in protecting her husband’s music, image and his legacy from greedy promoters and music labels.
Maybe you know about Maria Elena Holly very well but do you know how old and tall is she and what is her net worth in 2024? If you do not know, we have prepared this article about details of Maria Elena Holly’s short biography-wiki, career, professional life, personal life, today’s net worth, age, height, weight, and more facts. Well, if you’re ready, let’s start.
Early Life & Biography
Maria Elena Santiago was born on 20th December 1932 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She later moved to Ney York City, where she lived with her aunt Provi Garcia. This was after her mother died in 1935, and her dad convinced her to move in with her aunt. She got her first employment with music publisher Peermusic as a receptionist. This is where she met with Buddy Holly in 1957 who would later become her loving husband.
Buddy and his group had come to meet Santiago’s boss Murray Deutch. A day before recording Early In The Morning single, Buddy asked her out. This was her first date ever, and she had to ask her aunt Garcia for permission. For them, it was love at first sight as Buddy had asked her to marry him within five hours of their first date.
Personal Life
After Buddy proposed to her, they got married almost immediately as they married in Lubbock, Texas, were used to be Buddy’s home town. They lived in Lubbock and later moved to New York after Buddy and The Crickets, his band parted ways. Both worked together in Buddy’s music career where Maria took promotional duties before opening a publishing company where Maria’s first work as a producer was with the song Stay Close To Me.
Early 1959, Buddy and his two friends, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens, embarked on a musical tour but were never to return and they all died in a plane crash on 3rd February 1959. Maria came to learn of her husband’s death from television reports. Due to the shock brought by the news, she had a miscarriage though nobody has ever confirmed she was pregnant at the time. Later, authorities formulated a law where victims’ names will only be disclosed after the families have been informed.
Age, Height, and Weight
Being born on 20th December 1932, Maria Elena Holly is 88 years old as of today’s date 18th December 2024. Her height is 1.58m tall, and her weight is 68 kg.
Career
After the death of her husband, Maria went underground for several years as all she wanted was to leave everything behind. After marrying her second husband, he convinced her to honour Buddy’s memory by telling her story and protecting her deceased husband’s name.
She devoted her time to protecting her husband’s work against piracy and exploitative recording companies. Her works entail negotiating for license agreements with those that want to use Buddy’s music or image. Many have gone to accuse her of being greedy, and all she wants is to enrich herself through Buddy’s name.
Awards & Achievements
Maria is purely a businesswoman whose business is entire to protect license and sign agreements with entities who would like to use Buddy’s image or his music. Maria has not been nominated for an award. Without her husband’s fame, most likely she couldn’t be known as without Buddy’s name, she had no public name.
Net Worth & Salary of Maria Elena Holly in 2024
Owning rights to Buddy’s image, music, and any other property has been her business since his death. Buddy’s name after death became bigger after his death with many labels eager to produce a number of his songs which he was yet to produce. This became Maria’s work after winning acquiring rights to everything Buddy had. Today, Maria Elena Holly has a net worth estimated to be around $24 million as of December 2024.
After the death of his wife, Maria didn’t attend his funeral, and since his burial in 1959, she has never visited his gravesite. She blamed herself and music for her husband’s death, and it took her years before she listened to his music again, According to her that was the only time she was not beside her husband and f only she was there, she could have prevented Buddy from boarding that plane.