Born Eric Hilliard Nelson on May 8, 1940, in Teaneck, New Jersey, Ricky Nelson grew up on his family\u2019s sitcom The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By seventeen, his performance of \u201cI\u2019m Walking\u201d<\/em> on the show made him a teen idol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The song \u201cclimbed to number four on the Billboard chart,\u201d and hits like \u201cPoor Little Fool,\u201d \u201cTravelin\u2019 Man,\u201d<\/em> and \u201cGarden Party\u201d<\/em> followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1963, Ricky married Kristin Harmon. They had four children\u2014Sam, twins Matthew and Gunnar, and Tracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite his growing fame, \u201chis family remained central to his life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Though he toured widely in the 1960s, Ricky battled \u201ca lifelong fear of flying\u201d and even sought therapy to manage it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On December 31, 1985, a plane crash killed Ricky and his entourage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rumors swirled, but his family said \u201cthe aircraft\u2019s faulty gasoline heater was the likely cause.\u201d His sons later honored his legacy through music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Early Life and Rise to Fame Born Eric Hilliard Nelson on May 8, 1940, in Teaneck, New Jersey, Ricky Nelson grew up on his family\u2019s sitcom The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. By seventeen, his performance of \u201cI\u2019m Walking\u201d on the show made him a teen idol. The song \u201cclimbed to number four on the Billboard chart,\u201d and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/horizonvibe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/horizonvibe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/horizonvibe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horizonvibe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horizonvibe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4215"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/horizonvibe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4217,"href":"https:\/\/horizonvibe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4215\/revisions\/4217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horizonvibe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/horizonvibe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horizonvibe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horizonvibe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Family and Career<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Fear of Flying<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Tragic End and Legacy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n