Steve Tracy

Steve Tracy was an actor who was probably best known for playing Percival Dalton, husband of Nellie Oleson, on one of my all-time favorite TV series, “Little House on the Prairie.” We “Little House” fans remember the love story between Nellie and Percival fondly, as it started out as a love-hate relationship. Percival (who never existed in real life) was hired to teach Nellie how to cook in her own restaurant, and he was the first person who wouldn’t put up with her spoiled behavior. By calling her “pretty,” he gained the adoration of Nellie, and the two eventually married.

Alison Arngrim, the actress who played Nellie, has written a memoir, Confessions of a Prairie Bitch. In the book, Arngrim explains how the death of Steve Tracy from AIDS complications in 1986 inspired her to become an activist. She says in the book:

“I always referred to Steve Tracy as my ‘other husband.’ In the years after we both left Little House, we stayed incredibly tight. It was as if our relationship picked up where Little House left off. We kidded around and told each other dirty jokes. We still could finish each other’s sentences — without a script. It was as if we never stopped being Nellie and Percival. Steve was my friend, my teacher, the confidant I ran to if I had a fight with a boyfriend. I needed him. He was the only constant in my crazy life, and I clung to him when everything else was spinning out of control.”

A chapter of Arngrim’s book appears in the latest issue of The Advocate.

Here’s a wonderful clip from “Little House on the Prairie,” when Nellie tells Percival she loves him: