Rock pioneer Dickey Betts could be memorialized on Sarasota highway

Southern-rock icon Dickey Betts by next summer could join a president, a governor, war heroes, a city leader and even a military school already honored with a segment of state-maintained highways or bridges in the county.

It all begins at the Sarasota County Commission meeting on Oct. 8, during which a resolution will be considered asking Florida’s Legislature to designate a portion of U.S. 41 from Osprey south the “Dickey Betts Memorial Highway.’’

Betts, a longtime Osprey resident whose family lived in the area since the 19th century, died in 2024 at age 80 after a career in which he and a small collection of colleagues literally created a music genre. He’s best known as a guitarist and vocalist for The Allman Brothers Band, performers of such iconic hits as “Ramblin’ Man.’’ Rolling Stone magazine ranks Betts in the top 100 rock guitarists of all time.

In a 2013 interview with the Sarasota Observer, Gregg Allman said one of the reasons he, too, moved to the Sarasota region was Betts.

“I probably moved there when the band got back together in ’79,’’ he said. “I moved to Anna Maria Island. I lived there from ’79 to ’83. Dickey (Betts) and I were writing a lot; I moved there, mainly because of him. Dickey lives down there. We used to play Robarts, because we would take turns playing in each person in the band’s hometown.’’

In fact, the lyrics to ‘Ramblin’ Man’ make reference to “a Greyhound bus, rollin’ down Highway 41.’’

Among those honored before Betts, Gil Waters, a Sarasota leader who advocated for the construction of the Ringling Bridge and shares its name with the circus magnate.

The notion to honor Betts arose last summer during the tail end of a Sarasota County Commission meeting. At the time, Chair Joe Neunder remarked that former County Commission Jon Thaxton raised the idea to him to bring to the board.

“I have to be very transparent and honest, this is an item Commissioner Thaxton brought to my attention,’’ he said. “He’s certainly the Osprey guy, Nokomis, and I think we all know, rest in peace Mr. Betts, that that’s his area, his stomping ground and (Thaxton) brought that to my attention. We all appreciate and understand how much Commissioner Thaxton enjoys his music.’’

With a thumbs up from the majority of the commissioners, which seems likely, the resolution would be sent to the Florida Legislature to name and mark the segment of U.S. 41 between North Creek and Blackburn Point Road. Betts Road near Myakka City bears the name of the family, owing to their time in the region dating back to the Civil War.

The Florida Legislature has the final say, but approval is not without musical precedent. In 2024, State Road A1A was named in honor of Jimmy Buffet.