Peggy Sue Gerron was born on June 15, 1940 in Olton, Texas, USA. She was married to Lynn Bryant Rackham and Jerry Allison. She died on October 1, 2018 in Lubbock, Texas, USA.
She and Allison divorced in 1964, and she moved to California to attend Pasadena Junior College. She remarried and had two children, helped her husband set up a plumbing business, and said she was the first licensed woman plumber in California.
It is widely claimed that the song was initially titled "Cindy Lou", and that Allison asked Holly to change the title to win back his girlfriend after a break-up; she denied this story.
She was the inspiration for Buddy Holly's 1957 hit song "Peggy Sue". She was actually the girlfriend of Jerry Allison, Holly's band mate in The Crickets. She and Allison married in 1958, inspiring another song, "Peggy Sue Got Married". It was released after Holly's death in a plane crash in 1959.