b'The Troubled Soul of Every GeniusFreddy was an alcoholic. It runs in his family. In my family, it runs in both of my parents side, said Tammy Lorraine Huerta Fender in a 2020 interview upon the release of her biography about her father, Wasted Days and Wasted NightsThe Meteoric Rise to Stardom, A Daughters Story. We drugged together, and we drank together. He shouldnt have been doing that with me. He shouldnt have been do-ing that because I was 17. It was wrong what we did, and he made his amends, but I harbored so much anger towards him, Tammy recalled about her life with her dad as she entered adulthood and was introduced to the world of super-stardom.The enduring force in Freddy Fenders life was Evangelina Vangie Muniz Huer-ta, his teenage sweetheart whom he first married in 1957 after he returned from the Marine Corps and was building his name as El Bebop Kid. They divorced after he was released from Louisiana state prison in 1963, but reconciled and remarried in 1965. Over their storied 49-year relationship, the couple separated and reconciled on numerous occasions. Vangie was always there for Freddy, maintaining a home and raising their children, while he was traveling the world building a musical ca-reer that was his manifest destiny, since he was a boy singing in San Benito.After peaking on national and international record charts in 1975 and 1976, Fend-ers popularity as a live performer skyrocketed, even if he failed to produce new #1 hits. In my culture, I was raised where I couldnt even smile at boys, said Tammy Huerta Fender, of her early upbringing, before Freddy became worldwide famous, I was very popular in school. I was happy and I was a cheerleader. ItThat was the first all changed and began to strip me of my freedom. Then the depression settime I saw him in, and more things happened. My life- performI didnt style became really crazy. understand what the Tammy described a trip with her dadfuss was about toMagicMountainthemeparkin Valencia, California, They were tell- I was star struck.Above: Freddy Fender the aging master in the 1990s, after his peak but before his illness, perform- ing him that he had to stay for a third ing before a sell-out audience; Below/Left: Fender accepting his star on the Hollywood Walk ofshow. It was already 11 at night. It was packed, and he was exhausted. In the book, Fame; Below/Right: .and on Corpus Christis Texas Music Walk of Fame at Water Street Market.theres a story I tell about going into the limousine, when we were ready to go. He had to stay, and I snuck away from the bodyguards to watch the show from the bleachers, she remembered about seeing her father singing Secret Love to thousands of adoring fans. That was the first time I saw him perform. I didnt understand why he was always gone and what the fuss was about. When he sang that song the crowd was silent. I was baffled at how people were looking at him. I was a teenager at the time, and I was star struck.Tammy described a whirlwind celebrity lifestyle that lasted a solid decade. Freddys popularity took him across the world, making loyal fans in locales from Germany to Australiaeven performing for sailors and Marines stationed on Okinawa, Japan, where the teenage rebel Baldemar Huerta was stationed, sent to the brig for drunk-enness, and eventually court-martialed out of the Marine Corps and sent home, three decades earlier. Gerald Ford was the first U.S. President for whom Freddy Fender performed, but his successor, Jimmy Carter, was something of a mega-fan, inviting him to the White House three times during his one-term presidency. Both Presidents Bush were outspoken Freddy Fender fans, being from Texas and smart to appeal to Hispanic votersthe elder Bush even played an instrumental role in Fender being awarded a star on Hollywoods Walk of Fame, in 1999. In the days before bitter partisanship ruled American politics and entertainment, Freddy 94THECOASTALBENDMAGAZINE TheCoastalBend.com'