The Honkettes

The Honkettes was the name given to the female backing singers of the Southern Rock and Roll band Lynyrd Skynyrd. These members were Cassie Gaines, JoJo Billingsley, and Leslie Hawkins. It was on Cassie's recommendation that her brother, Steve, auditioned for and eventually got the band's third guitar slot in May 1976, replacing the departed Ed King.

Cassie Gaines was killed in the October 20, 1977 plane crash near Gillsburg, Mississippi that also took the lives of her brother Steve, Skynyrd vocalist Ronnie Van Zant and three others. Leslie Hawkins survived the crash but was seriously injured; her musical career was impaired as a result. Billingsley was home tending to a family members illness, was not on the airplane but had warned other band members that she thought the plane unsafe. Billingsley and Hawkins reunited with Lynyrd Skynyrd to perform at their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.