A Michigan jury ruled Tuesday that a 2014 paper discovered under Aretha Franklin’s couch after her death is her real will and testament, putting an end to her family’s legal battle over her estimated $6 million inheritance. For some time now, the singer’s sons have been arguing over two handwritten documents containing her will. Lawyers for the late singer’s two boys claim their half-brother Ted White is doing everything he can to “disinherit” them.
When Franklin died in 2018 at the age of 76, she did not leave behind a formal, typewritten will. Sabrina Owens, the singer’s niece and executor of her estate, discovered two handwritten documents at the singer’s house in Detroit nine months after her death.
One of the two handwritten notes, dated June 2010, was discovered inside a closed desk drawer, while the other, dated March 2014, was discovered in her couch, where one of her sons, Kecalf Franklin, claimed the Queen of Soul normally did business.What the singer’s children will inherit differs between the 2010 and 2014 versions.
According to the 2014 will, three sons would split the singer’s music royalties and bank cash evenly, while the youngest child Kecalf and his grandkids would get Franklin’s main home in Bloomfield Hills, which was recently assessed at $1.1 million, according to the BBC. Kecalf has also been named executor.
However, the 2010 agreement indicates that Kecalf and another son, Edward, “must take business classes and get a certificate or a degree” in order to profit from the singer’s legacy. Ted is the executor in the 2010 version.
Ted, his mother’s touring guitarist, testified in court against the 2014 will, saying that his mother Franklin would have written a will “conventionally and legally” rather than “freehand.” The 2010 will, according to his attorney Kurt Olson, was kept under lock and key in the house rather than under the cushions. “They’re trying to make Ted into a bad guy,” Olson explained.
The jury reached its decision after less than an hour of deliberation in the brief trial, which began on Monday. It was a victory for Kecalf and his brother Edward, who contended that the 2014 paper should take precedence over the 2010 text.
“I’m very, very happy. I just wanted my mother’s wishes to be adhered to,” Kecalf said. “We just want to exhale right now. It’s been a long five years for my family, my children.”
In surveys cited by BBC, over 70% of Blacks in America do not have wills partly because they do not trust the legal system.
Franklin died on August 16, 2018, at her home in Detroit, following a long illness. She died of pancreatic cancer while surrounded by her family and friends. Franklin’s singing career began in 1956, when she recorded her first records. She was a self-taught musician who was praised for her loud and distinct voice.
Her highly successful career spanned several decades, and she received numerous awards and honors, including a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, several Grammy Awards, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, first place on Rolling Stone’s list of the Greatest Singers of All Time, and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (she was the first woman in history to do so).
The singer’s two handwritten wills, which pitted her children against each other, are reproduced below. The first two are handwritten wills from 2010, while the latter two are handwritten wills from 2014.
