Vi Petty; Founded Studio That Launched Rock Stars

Vi Petty, 63, who with her husband founded the studio where Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison recorded their early songs. Norman and Vi Petty gained national fame in the late 1950s and early 1960s when they opened the Norman Petty Seventh Street Recording Studio in Clovis, N.M. They offered such untested talents as Holly, Orbison, Buddy Knox and the Fireballs a chance to record. Holly and his group, the Crickets, recorded “That’ll Be the Day” in 1957 at the Petty studio. Knox recorded “Party Doll,” Orbison recorded “Ooby Dooby” and the Fireballs recorded their 1963 hit, “Sugar Shack,” there. Norman Petty died of leukemia in 1984. His wife died Sunday of liver failure in Clovis.