** FILE ** Grammy-winning musician Freddy Fender salutes the crowd as he holds his "Ritchie Valens Pioneer Award" at the 2002 ALMA Awards in Los Angeles, in this file photo taken, May 18, 2002. Fender, the "Bebop Kid" of the Texas-Mexico border who later turned his twangy tenor into the smash country ballad "Before the Next Teardrop Falls," died Saturday. He was 69. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)