Tracy Nelson and Ricky Nelson

Ricky Nelson was one of the top male performers back in the days. At an early age of eight, he was already earning top dollar from the industry. His daughter, Tracy Nelson also followed her dad’s footsteps and ventured into show business, not as a singer but as an actress. Her career as an actress was a consistent one. Her first documented role came about in 1968 and she was only four at that time. Throughout her career, she had a consistent streak of movie and TV credits under her belt.

But despite her professional success, her personal life has shown unimaginable pain and courage. On New Year’s Eve 1985, Tracy’s father Ricky Nelson, 45, was killed in an airplane crash. In 1987, doctors found a pomelo-sized tumor in her chest, and a biopsy confirmed stage 2 Hodgkin’s lymphoma. She underwent a seven-hour operation. Now she is a cancer survivor and a spokesperson for The Lymphoma Research Foundation of America.