Larry Lehmer was a newspaper reporter and editor for 40 years, including 24 years at the Des Moines Register. During his time as a senior editor at The Register, the paper was named one of the country's top 10 newspapers by Time magazine. During his newspaper career, Lehmer was a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and Investigative Reporters & Editors. He is a graduate of the American Press Institute in Washington, D.C., and a former member of the Association of Personal Historians. Lehmer is also the author of The Day the Music Died: The Last Tour of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens, which was nominated for the 1997 Gleason Music Book Award. As a result of that book's success, Lehmer worked with the E! cable television network in producing an episode of its Mysteries and Scandals series, was a contributor to a VH1 documentary on Buddy Holly and was a featured subject on the ID-Discovery Channel's The Will: Family Secrets Revealed program on Ritchie Valens. He lives in Urbandale, Iowa, with his wife, Linda.