Death
On October 20, 1977, three days after the album, "Street Survivors" was released (and five dates into the band's most successful tour yet), a plane carrying the band between shows from Greenville, South Carolina to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, crashed outside of Gillsburg, Mississippi. The plane landed in a swampy area and crashed into trees. Gaines died from blunt-force trauma to the head; he was 28 years old and likely was killed on impact. The crash also killed Ronnie Van Zant, Steve's sister Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary, and co-pilot William Gray.
Steve Gaines was cremated and buried in Orange Park, Florida in 1977, but was relocated to an undisclosed location after vandals broke into his and bandmate Ronnie Van Zant's tombs on June 29, 2000. Their mausoleums remain as memorials for fans to visit.
He is the subject of the 2001 song "Cassie's Brother" by rock band Drive-By Truckers.
Less than two years after the plane crash, the Gaines' mother, Cassie LaRue Gaines, was killed in an automobile accident near the cemetery where Steve and Cassie were buried. She was buried near her children.
Read more about this topic: Steve Gaines
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“Only death rescues us from dying.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Oh Death he is a little man,
And he goes from do’ to do’ ...”
—Federal Writers’ Project Of The Wor, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And Death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die!”
—John Donne (c. 1572–1631)