Just two years after the death of her father, Ricky, and shortly after she married actor Billy Moses, she began to feel weak. She had a dream in which her father told her “I know you miss me, but it’s not time for you to die. You have to go see a doctor”. Unfortunately, in 1987, doctors found a small tumor in her chest, which turned out to be stage two Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
She said that her illness was the result of stress over her youngest brother’s custody battle. Although she was able to overcome the cancer, the radiation she was exposed to led her to develop another cancer years later. In 2005, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2005 and then breast cancer in 2010.
The Other Nelson Grandchildren
Not all of Ricky and Kristin's children were caught up in the family drama. Their first three kids all managed to escape much of the family drama since they were much older. Their first child, daughter Tracy Nelson, followed similarly in her family’s footsteps and became an actress.
She got started with her acting career before other people even start crawling, considering that at the age of three months old, she appeared on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. At the age of four, she was once again on television when she played in Yours, Mine and Ours as the daughter of Lucille Ball. She eventually went on to study ballet for 17 years and studied dance in college.
Tracy Nelson
Tracy acted on the sitcom Square Pegs alongside Sarah Jessica Parker in the 1980's. She played the “valley girl” Jennifer DeNuccio. During this time, she experienced her breakthrough role in film after she starred in Paul Mazursky’s Down and Out in Beverly Hills. She gained more popularity after starring in The Father Dowling Mysteries, in which she played the role as Sister Stephanie.
As a member of television’s Nelson family, she would go on to guest star in other classic family sitcoms such as Family Ties, The Nanny, 7th Heaven, Melrose Place, Seinfeld, and St. Elsewhere. But eventually, Tracy's life would take a turn for the worse...
The Nelson Twins
Following Tracy's birth, Ricky and Kristin had identical twin boys in 1967, Gunnar and Matthew. Both boys inherited the musical talents from their grandparents Ozzie and Harriet and their father Ricky. For two years, they learned how to write songs and they met Los Angeles record producer Marc Tanner.
In 1989, they were signed to Geffen Records and their band, Nelson, became a hit. In 1990, their album After the Rain went triple platinum and promoted their most popular hit “Can’t Live Without Your Love and Affection.”
The Nelson Twins Band
Nelson was most popular during the 1990s. The metal and hard rock band made it into the Guinness Book of World Records after their hit “Love and Affection” reached number one on the charts. The Nelson family is the only family to have number one records in three successive generations in the same family.
Ozzie Nelson had a number one hit in 1934 with “And Then Some,” their father Ricky reached number one in the early ‘60s with “Poor Little Fool” and “Travelin’ Man,” and Nelson reached number one with “Love and Affection.”