The body of the soul singer James Brown has been moved out of his mansion to a secret location in the latest twist of an intense family feud over the entertainer’s millions. Bickering over the estate — and the body – of the ”Godfather of Soul”, who died on Christmas Day, reached a new peak with the filing of his will, which made no provision for the woman who claims to be his widow, or their five-year-old son, James Junior.
According to the Augusta Chronicle, Brown’s body was moved last Thursday afternoon, the same day his will was filed in a probate court without mention of his youngest son in it.
Tommie Rae Hynie (36) a former backing singer, has been fighting a legal battle to gain access to the Beech Island, South Carolina, mansion she shared with Brown, and where his body had been lying in a temperature- controlled room since his funeral on December 30.
Buddy Dallas, Brown’s long-time lawyer and friend, did not say why the body had been moved immediately after the reading of the will, which was drawn up a year before James Junior’s birth, and which mentions only his six adult children. But he insisted that the oldest children alone would decide where and when Brown, who was 73 when he died of congestive heart failure, would be buried. Hynie, he said, was not entitled to anything.
”Their relationship was so on and off,” Dallas told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, suggesting that Brown never updated the will because he was hurt that Hynie had failed to tell him she was already married before their wedding in 2000. ”How could he ever trust her again? He was humiliated, embarrassed, saddened. He respected marriage,” he said.
Hynie’s earlier marriage was later annulled, but it is not clear whether this validated her marriage to Brown.
However, Robert Rosen, Hynie’s lawyer, said he planned to challenge the validity of the will. He said she was entitled to a chunk of the singer’s fortune, which is estimated to run into tens of millions of dollars. ”You can’t cut your wife out of your will in South Carolina,” Rosen said last week. ”If she is his wife, she is automatically entitled to one-third of the estate, regardless of what the will said.”
Legal experts say the dispute could last for years. One further complication could be a recent claim by a North Carolina woman, Gwendolyn Preston, that she is also Brown’s child.
Brown’s six acknowledged adult children are reportedly planning to put his body in an above-ground mausoleum, perhaps turning the singer’s home into a Graceland-style museum that includes his grave. They plan to consult with Elvis Presley’s family on how they opened Graceland, which attracts 600 000 visitors a year. – Guardian Unlimited Â