Brown's will leaves out one child
Soul legend James Brown’s will names six children but does not name the five-year-old child he had with his former backing singer partner, Tomi Rae Hynie.
The will was filed in South Caroline yesterday.
The will begins: “I, James Brown, also known as ‘The Godfather of Soul’ ... have six living children.”
The bequest, dividing his personal possessions among the six children, was signed 10 months before the child’s birth and more than a year before Brown married Hynie.
Lawyers who handled the will said the child may be entitled to some of the estate, but a paternity test would be needed.
“We would not want to divide and deliver property until all these issues are resolved,” said attorney Ray Massey.
The will says Brown intentionally failed to provide for “any other relatives or persons whether claiming, or to claim, to be an heir of mine or not.”
Brown died of heart failure in an Atlanta hospital on Christmas morning at the age of 73.
His children have said they are planning to turn his home into a museum and build a mausoleum on the site.
Most of Brown’s “primary assets,” including the singer’s music rights and his 60-acre Beech Island, South Carolina, estate, are in an irrevocable trust separate from his will, according to Brown’s attorney and trustee Buddy Dallas.
Dallas did not know how much the trust was worth.
Yesterday, Brown’s body remained in a sealed, gold casket in a temperature-controlled room at his Beech Island home, said Charles Reid, manager of the CA Reid Funeral Home in Augusta, Georgia, which handled Brown’s funeral.
The will, and Hynie’s exclusion, has added to a dispute about Brown’s legacy.
Brown’s lawyers contend that Hynie is not Brown’s widow because she was still married to another man when they said their vows. They have said Hynie later annulled her previous marriage, but she and Brown never remarried.
Hynie’s lawyer, Robert Rosen, said on Wednesday that he will sue, asking a court to rule Hynie was legally married to Brown and is entitled to half of his estate.
“At the end of the day, in my opinion, Tomi Rae Hynie will inherit 50 percent of James Brown’s estate and the trust and the child, James Brown’s son, will inherit one-seventh of the other 50 percent,” Rosen said.
