Gary Rossington, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s last surviving original member who also helped to found the group, died Sunday at the age of 71. No cause of death was given.“It is with our deepest sympathy and sadness that we have to advise, that we lost our brother, friend, family member, songwriter and guitarist, Gary Rossington, today,” the band's Facebook says. “Gary is now with his Skynyrd brothers and family in heaven and playing it pretty, like he always does. Please keep Dale, Mary, Annie and the entire Rossington family in your prayers and respect the family’s privacy at this difficult time.”Rossington cheated death more than once, Rolling Stone reported. He survived a car accident in 1976 in which he drove his Ford Torino into a tree, inspiring the band’s cautionary song “That Smell.” A year later, he emerged from the 1977 plane crash that killed singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, and backing vocalist Cassie Gaines, with two broken arms, a broken leg, and a punctured stomach and liver.“It was a devastating thing," he told Rolling Stone in 2006. "You can’t just talk about it real casual and not have feelings about it.”In later years, Rossington underwent quintuple bypass surgery in 2003, suffered a heart attack in 2015, and had numerous subsequent heart surgeries, most recently leaving Lynyrd Skynyrd in July 2021 to recover from another procedure. At recent shows, Rossington would perform portions of the concert and sometimes sat out full gigs.Rossington was born Dec. 4, 1951, in Jacksonville, Florida, and raised by his mother after his father died. Upon meeting drummer Bob Burns and bassist Larry Junstrom, Rossington and his new friends formed a band, which they tried to juggle amid their love of baseball.According to Rolling Stone, it was during a fateful Little League game, Ronnie Van Zant hit a line drive into the shoulder blades of opposing player Bob Burns and met his future bandmates. Rossington, Burns, Van Zant, and guitarist Allen Collins gathered that afternoon at Burns’ Jacksonville home to jam the Rolling Stone’s “Time Is on My Side.”Adopting Lynyrd Skynyrd as the group’s name — both a reference to a similarly named sports coach at Rossington’s high school and to a character in the 1963 novelty hit “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh” — the band released their debut album (Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-’nérd) in 1973. A collection of country-tinged blues-rock and Southern soul, the album included now-classics like “Tuesday’s Gone,” “Simple Man” and “Gimme Three Steps,” but it was the closing track, the nearly 10-minute “Free Bird,” that became the group’s calling card, due in no small part to Rossington’s evocative slide playing on his Gibson SG.Rossington told Rolling Stone that he never considered Skynyrd to be a tragic band, despite all the band's drama and death. “I don’t think of it as tragedy — I think of it as life,” he said upon the group’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2006. “I think the good outweighs the bad.”

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CHICAGO —

A Chicago woman who lost her wedding band nearly 50 years ago was reunited with the ring just in time for Valentine's Day.

Karen Autenrieth and her husband Robert, surrounded by their children and grandchildren on Valentine's Day, opened the package holding the long lost ring.

In a video taken by their daughter Michele, Robert Autenrieth is seen sliding the ring -- which he had given his wife on their wedding day nearly 55 years ago -- on her finger before he kisses her.

"Happy, very happy," Karen said when asked how she felt. "It's like I can't believe it. It's amazing."

The improbable story began during the winter of 1973, when Karen lost her wedding band at her grandmother's house in Chicago. It's a memory she clearly recalls decades later.

"It was very cold and the snow plows had plowed the snow up onto the curbs," Karen told the Chicago Tribune. "I had parked my car in front of my grandmother's house and I was climbing over mounds of snow, helping each kid get into the car. My hands were cold -- I didn't have mittens on -- and my ring just flew into the snow."

Despite her best efforts, Karen said she was unable to find the gold ring -- which had "RA to K.B. 4-16-66" engraved on it in honor of the day she and her husband married.

She was disappointed but accepted that she might never see the ring again.

Related video: Couple reunited with engagement ring lost in snow

The universe had other plans

In February, a Chicago man who lost his own wedding ring posted on Facebook asking if anyone had found it.

In the comments section, Sarah Batka, a woman who lives in Autenrieth's grandparents' former Chicago home, said she had discovered a wedding ring "six to eight years ago" while she was gardening. It wasn't the man's ring, but it sparked a hunt for the rightful owner.

After being tagged in the post, two historians -- Carol Flynn and Linda Lamberty -- set off to solve the mystery. The historians work at the Ridge Historical Society, which is dedicated to "preserving and interpreting" the history of Chicago neighborhoods.

Flynn and Lamberty used government records, newspaper archives and genealogy sites to retrace the origin of the ring, Flynn wrote in a Facebook post.

Within days, they had a lead.

They discovered that a woman -- Karen Autenrieth -- had grandparents who once lived in Batka's home and now resides in San Antonio, Texas. They thought that she was the possible owner of the ring.

"The woman was on Facebook, and around 2:30 a.m., I sent an enthusiastic if somewhat disjointed message to her. Was this ring by chance hers?" Flynn wrote in the post.

"She replied later Monday morning -- it was hers! She lost it 50 years ago in the snow at her grandmother's house! She was amazed that it had been found all these years later. We got together by phone and had a teary-eyed conversation," Flynn wrote.

After connecting, Flynn mailed the ring to Autenrieth, who held onto the package to open it on Valentine's Day with her husband.

"I went, 'Holy Mary, I can't believe it,'" Karen told the Chicago Tribune. "Our 55th anniversary will be April 16. And to think we'll be getting the ring back after almost 50 years."

A newlywed nearly spent his honeymoon in the doghouse.Andrew Kent dropped his sweetheart's wedding ring into Lake Tahoe during their wedding ceremony — when they were trying to exchange rings, KOVR-TV reports.But thanks to a scuba diver, the episode has a happy ending.Newlywed Marlee Kent, of Vancouver, Washington, said she can't wait to share the tale with their kids one day. Tap the video above to find out more about this story.