Fotos Y R ecuerdosa

Hometown Boys lose yet another brother
Death, a too-frequent visitor, knocked yet again Friday on the door of the Martinez family. Ricky Martinez, lead singer
of Lubbock-based conjunto band The Hometown Boys, died shortly after midnight Friday in a hospital in Alice. He was
48. Ricky is the fourth of five Martinez brothers, and band members, to die since 1997.

The Hometown Boys were inducted into the West Texas Walk of Fame, formerly Buddy Holly Walk of Fame, in 1996.
Band members Ramon Martinez Sr., Ricky Martinez, Joe Martinez and Jesse Martinez were honored in a public
induction ceremony and became the first Mexican-American inductees to have their names inscribed on plaques
surrounding the statue of Buddy Holly, located west of the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center.

With Ricky Martinez's kidneys failing at the Alice hospital, doctors had hoped to quickly transfer him by helicopter to
Victoria, where a specialist was waiting. But he was too unstable to move, according to his younger brother, Bobby. "It
was a combination of things," Bobby said. "His wife found him unresponsive. The first thought was that he had had a
diabetic attack. At the hospital, doctors said that his kidneys were failing, and he also had pneumonia and there was
internal bleeding." Ricky died at 12:20 a.m. Friday.

Bobby said he tried desperately to get his father, Ramon Martinez Sr., to Ricky's bedside in time, but both men arrived
in Alice too late. The Hometown Boys, a Grammy Award-winning group known to fans as the Homies, has weathered
more than its share of tragedy in the past decade:

• Ramon Martinez Jr., a percussionist and sound engineer, died after a lengthy illness in October 1997. He was 45. Joe
Martinez had a heart attack shortly after Ramon's funeral.

*Joe Martinez, doing well after quadruple bypass surgery, visited the Hallaballo nightclub in Houston in January 1998
to see his family perform. He was invited on stage and, after playing three songs, collapsed. His death was ruled a
heart attack. He was 34.

• Jesse Martinez, the drummer and youngest member of the family band, was stricken with an aneurysm in August
2002, minutes before a scheduled band performance in Lubbock. He died at University Medical Center. He also was
34.

"When I lost my first two brothers, I questioned everything and felt it was all unfair," Bobby Martinez said Friday. "Now,
after losing two more brothers, death has become a part of life. It hurts. It's sad. It always stays with you. But me
personally, I've learned to cope with it. I've had to. "I didn't just lose my brothers. My nephew died in 2004, and my
mom died in 2005."

The band had been scheduled to perform Friday at the South Beach Club and Lounge in Lubbock. Owner Chris
Gonzales said Friday he was told Thursday to cancel the show because "Ricky is in bad shape." He added that many
fans have chosen to hang onto their tickets "as mementoes" rather than trade them in for a refund. Noting that the
Homies played at South Beach approximately three times per year, Gonzales added, "Ricky was the big character on
stage. Off stage, he was laid back; he was cool like a Blues Brothers kind of cool. He was smart, kind, a very articulate
guy."

Bobby remembered older brother Ricky as "the kind of guy where, if a stranger walked into the room, Ricky would get
up and introduce himself and make a new friend." Family patriarch and guitarist Ramon Martinez Sr., who turns 72 on
Aug. 9, and remaining son Bobby, a bass guitarist, plan to keep the band going. "The last time I talked about serious
things with Ricky," Bobby recalled Friday, "I remember he told me that he would want the band to keep on playing."

Ramiro Burr, a San Antonio Express-News columnist and author of "The Billboard Guide to Tejano and Regional Mexican
Music," said Friday, "The Hometown Boys represent the best of the new wave that came in during Tejano music's early
'90s renaissance. When Tejano music exploded, they paid tribute to older conjunto music, but also freshed it up for a
new, younger audience.

"... This is tragic, but the band deserves to keep going. They might be the best at what they do; the Homies definitely
are at the forefront. Going on, I'm sure, is what the brothers would have wanted."

Local radio stations playing Mexican-American music will continue offering tributes until Martinez's funeral Wednesday.

Elda Moreno, owner of La Feria Records, Tapes & CDs, said she had sold out of everything by The Hometown Boys on
Friday morning and was taking reservations for product arriving Monday and Tuesday. "I've taken phone calls from as
far away as Nebraska and Michigan from people looking for Homies music, not just their latest release ('Traicionera' on
Tejas Records)." It was Moreno and her brother, Jaime Moreno, who produced the band's first independent CD in 1990.
That was back when bands were just making cassettes," she said. "Joe titled the CD 'It's Our Turn.' I've still got a couple
of copies I'm sure not going to part with. Ricky dying is still hard to believe. I thought it was a mistake, that it must be a
different Ricky Martinez. That family has known so much pain."

Ricky Martinez is survived by his wife, Nelda, and daughter, Ricca.