Monroe was raised in Van Nuys, attended Van Nuys High School and was discovered while she was working at Van Nuys Airport during World War II. She starred in films like “Some Like it Hot,” and “The Seven-Year Itch.”
Monroe, whose real name was Norma Jean Baker, was 36 years old when she died of a drug overdose in 1962.
Valens attended San Fernando High School and was discovered in 1958 at the American Legion hall in Pacoima. His hits included “La Bamba,” an adaptation of a Mexican folk song. A film about his life with the same title was released in 1987.
Valens was 18 years old when he died in a plane crash in Iowa with two other rock stars in 1959.
Richard Steven Valenzuela (May 13, 1941 – February 3, 1959), known professionally as Ritchie Valens, was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. A rock and roll pioneer and a forefather of the Chicano rock movement, Valens' recording career lasted eight months and abruptly ended when he died in a plane crash.
During this time, he had several hits, most notably "La Bamba", which he had adapted from a Mexican folk song. Valens transformed the song into one with a rock rhythm and beat, and it became a hit in 1958,[4][5] making Valens a pioneer of the Spanish-speaking rock and roll movement. He also had the American number 2 hit ''Donna''.
On February 3, 1959, on what has become known as "The Day the Music Died", Valens died in a plane crash in Iowa, an accident that also claimed the lives of fellow musicians Buddy Holly and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, as well as pilot Roger Peterson. Valens was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.
