A small shrine of flowers appeared in entrance of Margaritaville in Key West, Fla., on Saturday. There had been extra flowers exterior Shrimp Boat Sound, Jimmy Buffett’s low-key recording studio alongside the docks of the Historic Seaport, the place followers of the singer additionally positioned a six-pack of beer, a replica of one in every of his books and, in fact, a shaker of salt.

For residents of the southernmost metropolis within the continental United States, Saturday was a day to mourn and toast the singer who died at 76 on Friday and who, together with his 1977 anthem “Margaritaville,” made himself and his onetime dwelling well-known.

Key Westers posted tributes on social media, dropped well-wishes on the Margaritaville restaurant and retailer — the Buffett companies that began right here and expanded into an empire of inns, merchandise like Landshark Lager, and extra — and began planning a celebration of Mr. Buffett’s life for Sunday, beginning at, naturally, 5 p.m. “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” was a chart-topping nation duet Mr. Buffett recorded with the singer Alan Jackson in 2003.

Megan Burgess, 55, discovered of the singer’s loss of life when a buddy texted her at 5:35 a.m. She has lived in Key West for 10 years and first visited 20 years in the past — due to Mr. Buffett’s music. She fell in love with the island and began returning yearly.

“Every time I left, I would cry,” she mentioned. She tried to carry on to the vibe again in Fort Edward, N.Y., the place she labored for Washington County’s social companies division and surrounded herself with reminders of Key West and Mr. Buffett. “My little tiny office looked like a tropical paradise to get me through until I could get here again.”

Stephanie and Matt Ginthner drove down from their dwelling in Islamorada, about 80 miles from Key West, to pay their respects at Shrimp Boat Sound. There are not any indicators there, however its possession was an open secret amongst locals. Ms. Ginthner, 31, grew up going to Mr. Buffett’s exhibits along with her mother and father, singing alongside to raunchy lyrics earlier than she understood them. Going by way of winters in Hunterdon, N.J., she longed to go to the Florida Keys.

The music “made you happy,” she mentioned. “It made you dream that there was something more to life. When I came here, I understood, and it got in my soul and I couldn’t leave.”

For a number of generations now, Mr. Buffett’s music has helped outline Key West for the world and, to some extent, itself. He arrived on the island within the early Seventies because it was present process an financial and cultural transition.

The naval station that had been the inspiration of the native financial system for many years was about to shut. The big-time tourism, which might ultimately be partly fueled by Mr. Buffett’s portrayals, had not but began. Many locals turned to marijuana smuggling, simply as they’d turned to rumrunning throughout Prohibition. And similar to in these days, many native authorities turned a blind eye.

He used this place “as a muse,” mentioned Cori Convertito, 45, the curator and historian for the Key West Art and Historical Society. “The attitude, the drug running, the way that the ’70s were, for his attitude and his vision for his own life.”

Dr. Convertito added: “It was exactly what he needed as a form of inspiration. This island was not short of characters at the time.”

With “Margaritaville,” “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes” and different songs, Mr. Buffett rose to nationwide fame and have become as a lot of an icon for Key West as one other artist who arrived throughout an financial downturn: Ernest Hemingway.

Both discovered a subtropical small city with a nonjudgmental perspective and colourful folks, from native fishermen to fellow artists. And whereas Hemingway gained a Nobel Prize and folks nonetheless line as much as tour his Key West dwelling, Mr. Buffett’s affect on the place is extra vital, Ms. Convertito mentioned.

She mentioned she was stunned at what number of locals had been posting tributes to the singer — folks she had not considered followers.

“There’s something about the way he built his empire on that laid-back attitude — everybody is chill, relaxed, have a drink, get out on the water,” she mentioned. “Even if you don’t specifically like his songs, you like what his songs reference.”

Mr. Buffett left the Keys as his major dwelling within the late Seventies. According to William McKeen’s 2011 e book “Mile Marker Zero,” Mr. Buffett and his spouse, Jane, “were starting a family, and if there was one thing that Jane Buffett knew it was that Key West was no place to raise a child.”

But Mr. Buffett stored houses on the island and would drop in to go fishing, document at his studio and, typically, make impromptu appearances on the Margaritaville Cafe or the Meeting of the Minds, the annual autumn gathering of Parrot Heads, as his followers are affectionately referred to as.

“He maintained being low-key here as long as he could,” mentioned Tony Falcone, 78, who additionally arrived in Key West within the Seventies and owned the shop Fast Buck Freddie’s that shared the previous Kress constructing on Duval Street with Margaritaville. “As Key West grew in popularity, it was harder.”

“He sold the concept and the idea of Key West because he loved Key West,” Mr. Falcone mentioned. “And he stayed with that. His music never really changed, and I think that’s what people loved about him. It’s this fantasy of living in Margaritaville.”

Mr. Buffett performed his remaining gigs on the island in February, when he began his Second Wind tour on the metropolis amphitheater on former Navy property alongside Key West’s harbor entrance. Tickets offered shortly, with costs hiked by resellers, disappointing most of the locals who had been lured to the Keys no less than partly by Mr. Buffett’s depictions of the place.

Ms. Burgess scored some tickets by way of a connection on the final minute and mentioned it was the very best Buffett present of the eight to 10 she noticed over time. The singer advised tales about his origins on the island, 50 years after releasing his first Key West-inspired tunes.

“The joy at that show was palpable,” she mentioned.

A few days after the amphitheater exhibits offered out, phrase went out domestically that Mr. Buffett was including a pair extra, at a neighborhood theater. Those tickets weren’t obtainable on-line — you needed to line up on the field workplace and present native ID, and you might get solely two at a time.

Just just like the previous days.