A week after Florida icon Jimmy Buffett’s death, flags will fly at half-staff in his remembrance, until the clock reaches 5 p.m. Friday.
Buffett died Sept. 1 after a four-year fight with a rare, aggressive skin cancer, Merkel cell carcinoma. He was 76.
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office in a news release Thursday just before 5 p.m. said that flags will fly at half-staff until 5 p.m. Friday at the Monroe County Courthouse in Key West, Key West City Hall and at the Capitol building in Tallahassee, “because it’s always five o’clock somewhere.”
“Floridians ‘Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season’ are encouraged to commemorate the legacy of our adopted native son by raising their margarita glass and enjoying a cheeseburger here in paradise to wish the ‘Son of a Son of a Sailor’ well,” the governor’s office said.
A statement on Buffett’s website said he “passed away peacefully” at home in Sag Harbor, Long Island and was still performing despite receiving cancer treatments. His last performance was a surprise at a show in Rhode Island in July.
Over the course of his 50-year legacy, Buffett’s name grew synonymous with the old Florida lifestyle, his name alone invoking thoughts of frozen drinks on the beach and lyrics from his hits “Margaritaville,” “Cheeseburger In Paradise” and “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere.”
He was also a dedicated conservationist who led manatee protection efforts and whose “appreciation for Florida’s landmark Everglades was reinforced through philanthropic efforts and song,” the governor’s office said.
Buffett created the Save the Manatee Committee in 1981 with then-Gov. Bob Graham and raised money through his concerts, according to the organization’s website.
“His legacy will forever resonate in the gentle currents of Florida’s waters, where manatees continue to thrive, thanks to his unwavering dedication and love. Jimmy, your song may have ended, but your conservation symphony will play on in the hearts of those you inspired,” the organization said in a statement on its website after his death.
Born in Mississippi and raised in Alabama, Buffett took a “fateful trip” to Key West that became the impetus for him to blend “his musicality, wanderlust and storytelling,” his website said.
“Key West in the 1970s was not the tourist-friendly town it is today – it was the last outpost of smugglers, con-men, artists and free-spirits who simply couldn’t run any further south in the mainland United States,” Buffett’s bio on his website said. “It was there that the young musician thrown into the midst of this eclectic mix found his true voice as a songwriter – telling the stories of the wanderers, the adventurers and the forlorn.”
His official obituary said his “branding and business acumen made him one of the most financially successful musicians of all time” in creating his Margaritaville hotel, restaurants and retirement communities enterprise. He also had success as an author.
“Buffett had little patience with performers who took themselves too seriously,” his obituary said. “He liked to say that the job of singing for a living was descended from the profession of court jester.”
