Cute little Maine schoolgirl Samantha Smith, age 10, enjoyed a brush with celebrity in 1982 when she became a sort of unofficial good will ambassador to the Soviet Union.
A fifth grader at the time, Smith wrote a letter to Communist Party chief Yuri Andropov asking why the two nations could not seem to get along. Andropov responded by inviting the girl and her parents to visit the Soviet Union as that nation's guests, which they did in the winter of 1983. For two weeks, young Samantha represented her country charmingly.
A book about the unusual visit was published, and the resultant publicity got Smith a job hosting a Disney TV special and later a role on the TV show Lime Street, starring Robert Wagner.
As Smith's plane was returning to Maine from filming for that show in 1985,it missed the runway and crashed, killing Samantha and her fellow passengers.
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