Ronnie Van Zant Memorial — Orange Park, Florida

Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines, both killed in the 20 October 1977 plane crash near Gillsburg, Mississippi, were originally interred at Orange Park Memorial Park in Orange Park, Florida — a community south of Jacksonville where Van Zant had lived with his family in the years before his death. In 2000, both graves were broken into and disturbed in an act of vandalism that shocked the music community and Van Zant's family. Following the desecration, the remains were reinterred at a more secure location arranged by the families, and a memorial marker at the original site continues to be a point of remembrance for fans who make the journey to pay their respects.

Van Zant had requested in his will to be buried in a Confederate flag-adorned casket, which was honoured at the time of his original burial. His grave, like those of other rock casualties buried young, became a pilgrimage site in the years following the crash as Lynyrd Skynyrd's music grew in stature and Southern rock established itself as a major strand of American popular culture. The 1977 crash — which also killed assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick and backup singer Cassie Gaines (Steve's sister) — was one of the most devastating single losses the rock world had suffered, comparable in impact to the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper in 1959.

Orange Park is a suburban community southwest of Jacksonville, accessible via the I-295 beltway. Fans visiting Lynyrd Skynyrd heritage sites in the Jacksonville area typically include the Orange Park memorial alongside the Wesconnett neighbourhood where the band's core members grew up. The plane crash site near Gillsburg, Mississippi, is a separate pilgrimage location approximately 600 miles to the northwest.