Video: 'Headline News - on the Death of Rick Nelson, 1985'

(Tuesday, December 31, 1985, 5:14 p.m. CST, New Year’s Eve) — Ricky Nelson, who gained childhood fame on his parents’ radio and television programs and went on to became one of rock-and-roll’s earliest teen-age idols, was killed today along with his fiancee and five other people when his DC-3 plane crashed in flames near De Kalb, Texas.

Nelson was 45.

Federal investigators later concluded the crash was probably due to a fire that was caused by the plane’s cabin heater “acting up.”

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