Ronnie Van Zant
On October 20, 1977, a plane carrying the band between shows from Greenville, South Carolina, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, ran out of fuel outside Gillsburg, Mississippi. The passengers had been informed about potential problems with the Convair CV-240 and were told to brace for a crash. Van Zant died on impact from head injuries suffered after the aircraft struck a tree. Bandmates Steve Gaines and Cassie Gaines, along with assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary, and co-pilot William Gray, were also killed. The rest of the band was seriously injured. Van Zant was 29 years old.
Ronnie Scribner
As Scribner entered adolescence, teenage audiences began to take notice of him, as did the teen magazines. Beginning to appear his true age, Scribner made the transition from child star to teen idol with color pinups and articles appearing in numerous teen magazines of the time, including "Tiger Beat", "Super Teen" and "Teen Stars" among others. In April 1982, "Tiger Beat" described Scribner when introducing him to their teen readers - "Soft brown hair, sparkling eyes of blue, a touch of freckles that gives him that appealing boy-next-door look and a smile to make your heart spin - that's Ronnie Scribner." On October 3, 1982, Scribner returned to the big screen with a role in the feature film "Split Image". In the film, Scribner portrayed Sean Stetson, the adolescent brother of a young man (Michael O'Keefe) whose family struggles to bring him home after he joins a religious "commune". Although a small supporting role, Scribner's performance in the film earned him a Youth In Film Award nomination (now known as the Young Artist Award) in the "Best Young Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture" category. On October 18, 1982, Scribner returned to "Little House on the Prairie" in what would be his final role. In the episode entitled "Rage", Scribner guest-starred as Randall Page, a teenage boy in Walnut Grove who falls in love with a girl (Tammy Lauren) whose father, plagued by personal and financial troubles, becomes unhinged after learning of the young lovers' budding romance.