Died On This Date (September 20, 2010) Leonard Skinner / Inspired Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Name
themusicsover Leonard Skinner
DOB Unknown – September 20, 2010
Leonard Skinner was a Jacksonville, Florida high school gym teacher who, during the late 1960s sent a group of his students to the principal’s audience for wearing their hair too long. A few years later, those school friends, Ronnie Van Zant, Allen Collins and Gary Rossington, named their newly formed rock band, Lynyrd Skynyrd as an inside joke tribute to their former coach at Robert E. Lee High School. Skinner later became a local real estate agent and shared a mutual admiration for the band. He even allowed them to use a photo of him inside 1975’s Nuthin’ Fancy. Suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease in recent years, Leonard Skinner passed away in a Jacksonville health care facility on September 20, 2010. He was 77.