James Brown was known as the Godfather of Soul, Mr. Dynamite, the King of Funk, Soul Brother #1, and the Hardest Working Man in Show Business, but it seems that settling his estate may end up being the hardest working legal battle in show business.
(This image, by dbking, is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License)
Brown died on December 25, 2006 of congestive heart failure and complications from pneumonia. Every since then, his estate has been awaiting a settlement. Brown’s will spelled out the dispersion of his music rights, business assets, and real estate. When his attorney Strom Thurmond Jr. read the will in January 2007, he revealed that Brown’s adult children (Terry, Larry, Daryl, Yamma, Deanna, and Venisha) were all named in the will. However, Tomi Rae Hynie, Brown’s wife at the time of his death, and infant son, James III, were not mentioned in the will, probably because Brown’s will was signed 10 months before James III was born.
Anyhow, his adult children filed a lawsuit to have the representatives of the estate removed because they thought the assets were being mismanaged. Meanwhile, Hynie filed a lawsuit because she and her son were not included in the will.
Of course, there are some people that believe Hynie and Brown were never married. One of Brown’s longtime attorneys, Albert “Buddy” Davis, states that the couple’s 2001 marriage is not valid because Hynie was still married to Javed Ahmed at the time. The marriage was annulled in 2004 – well after her marriage to Brown. Davis also said that Brown told him before he died that he didn’t want his children to “live on my back when I’m gone.”
The new settlement would have half of Brown’s remaining estate going to charitable trusts to educate his grandchildren and the needy students of Georgia and South Carolina. The rest would be split among Hynie (as the settlement recognizes her as his widow) and the remaining children. Apparently, Brown’s children decided to choose this settlement rather than continue to pay to fight. Exactly how much money is left in Brown’s estate has not been made public.
Brown’s children have toyed with the idea of turning his Beech Island home into a “Graceland” like tourist attraction, but some think the property is actually part of the charitable trust.