Ricky Nelson managed
the unthinkable in popular culture. A Fifties
teen icon, he survived the changing tastes of viewers and music listeners to
return to musical respectability. Ricky had
stared on radio and television in his
family’s popular comedy “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriett;” simultaneously
moved into recording, becoming one of the top pop music recorders of the late
1950s and early 1960s; then moved into major motion pictures, costarring with
John Wayne and Dean Martin. His
recording career languished as tastes changed, though he staged one last Top
Ten charge with the critically-well received “Garden Party” in 1972. His career fell into obscurity throughout the
1970s, but started to rebound with a renewed interest in the rockabilly sound
in the mid-1980s.
On
New Year’s Eve 1985, Nelson was flying from Guntersville, Alabama, to Dallas
for the next stop on a comeback tour when the cabin heater on the DC-3 he was
traveling in malfunctioned, causing a cabin fire to break out.
The
plane crashed near DeKalb, Texas, killing seven of nine people on board. According to the NTSB probable cause summary,
the pilot radioed at 5:08 PM requesting a vector for Texarkana, because he had
“a little problem.” Three minutes later
he reported smoke in the cockpit, and then attempted to land in an open field
three minutes after reporting smoke. The
“aircraft hit wires & a pole then continued into trees where it was
extensively damaged by impact & fire. The crew egressed thru the cockpit
windows. The passengers did not escape.”