What happened here?
On the corner of Hall Avenue and East Waylon Jennings Boulevard in the West Texas town of Littlefield — population around 6,000 — sits a drive-through liquor store that doubles as a shrine to one of country music's greatest outlaws. Waymore's was opened by James D. Jennings, Waylon's younger brother, who bought the building in 1971 as a gas station, ran it as a mechanic shop for years, and converted it into a liquor store in 2005.
Inside, scattered among the bottles and beer fridges, is a genuine collection of Waylon memorabilia: his first guitar — an old sanded-down acoustic with Waylon's name and his first wife's name still faintly visible, rescued from a pawnshop by James — a framed gold record that became the first platinum country music record (a gift to their mother), and the coat Waylon was wearing when he toured with Buddy Holly on the Winter Dance Party in 1959.
That tour ended in tragedy — Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper died in a plane crash outside Clear Lake, Iowa. Waylon had given up his seat on the chartered flight to the Big Bopper, who was sick with the flu. It was a decision that haunted him for the rest of his life, and the coat hanging in this liquor store is one of the few physical links to that night.
Waymore's is still open today, run by the Jennings family, and welcomes fans making the pilgrimage to Waylon's hometown. Hours run Monday to Saturday, 10am to 9pm. Littlefield has also renamed a stretch of road in Waylon's honour, and visitors come from around the world to hear the family's stories and take the 25-cent tour of Waylon's life. It is exactly the kind of museum Waylon would have wanted — no velvet ropes, no admission fee, just a liquor store with a story to tell.
