Cassie Gaines
January 9, 1948 – October 20, 1977
Cassie Gaines was part of gospel trio who, in 1975 were invited to join Lynyrd Skynyrd as back-up singers. Her brother, Steve Gaines, joined shortly thereafter. On October 20, 1977, while flying between shows in Greenville, South Carolina and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, their small chartered plane experienced engine trouble causing it to crash outside of Gillsburg, Mississippi. Dead on impact were band members, Ronnie Van Zant (29), Cassie Gaines (29), Steve Gaines (28), road manager, Dean Kilpatrick, the pilot and co-pilot.
she was a beautiful woman and talent
I tried doing some research on her but haven’t found much. JoJo said in an interview that Cassie was apart of the original production of the rock musical HAIR. Her name doesn’t appear on some of the cast list. There seem to be more infomation on her brother Steve not much on her. Also there’s no info on Leslie Hawkins who sang back up Cassie.