The Lynyrd Skynyrd Crash Site Monument came to life due to the many dedicated friends and fans of the band. The Lynyrd Skynyrd Monument Project Board had an idea for a highway marker near the crash site on Hwy 568. It would give fans something to see, touch, remember, and have a picture of when visiting the crash site.
The monument will be a fourteen-foot-wide and 8 foot tall black granite monument with Lynyrd Skynyrd pictures and information displayed on both sides of the band and plane crash.
The official unveiling is Oct. 20 at 3 p.m. about 400 yards from the actual crash site. Dwain and Lola Easley generously provided land on Easley Road, just south of the original Hwy 568 marker location.
The Lynyrd Skynyrd Monument Project Board has started the application process with the Blues Trail Marker and feel that one day they will also be displayed alongside the monument on Easley Road near the crash site and at Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center.
On October 20, 1977, a Convair CV-240 passenger aircraft ran out of fuel and crashed in a wooded area near Gillsburg, Mississippi. Chartered by the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd from L&J Company of Addison, Texas, it was near the end of its flight from Greenville, South Carolina, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Lead vocalist/founding member Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist and vocalist Steve Gaines, backing vocalist Cassie Gaines (Steve’s older sister), assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary, and co-pilot William Gray all died as a result of the crash; 20 others survived.
