{"id":2447255,"date":"2019-08-07T07:49:31","date_gmt":"2019-08-07T13:49:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=868384"},"modified":"2019-08-07T07:49:31","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T13:49:31","slug":"aretha-franklin-estate-handwriting-experts-to-examine-wills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/music-news\/aretha-franklin-estate-handwriting-experts-to-examine-wills\/","title":{"rendered":"Aretha Franklin Estate: Handwriting Experts to Examine Wills"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Aretha Franklin<\/a>\u2019s heirs vied for control over her estate<\/a> at a periodically testy hearing in Oakland County, Michigan Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The hearing ended with Judge Jennifer Callaghan putting the estate\u2019s administration partly under court supervision, the Detroit Free Press<\/em><\/a> reports. The court will play an active role in many major decisions, such as property sales, though Franklin\u2019s niece, Sabrina Owens, will remain the personal representative for the estate.<\/p>\n

Over the past few months, factions have begun to emerge among Franklin\u2019s various heirs. As The Associated Press<\/em><\/a> noted, after Franklin\u2019s death<\/a> last August, her heirs decided to put Owens, a university administrator, in charge of the estate. But since then, Franklin\u2019s youngest son, Kecalf Franklin has tried to gain control, especially after three wills ostensibly penned by Franklin were found this May<\/a> in a notebook under some couch cushions.<\/p>\n

Two of the three documents were dated 2010, while the other, from 2014, seems to suggest Franklin wanted Kecalf to assume control over her estate. During the hearing Tuesday, Judge Callaghan approved Kecalf\u2019s request to have a handwriting expert examine the wills and determine whether or not they were written by Franklin. Other family members will also be allowed to enlist handwriting experts to examine the documents.<\/p>\n

Kecalf is being supported in his attempt to gain control over the estate by his brother, Edward, who is Franklin\u2019s second-oldest son. Owens, meanwhile, has the support of Franklin\u2019s third son, Ted White, as well as the guardian for her eldest son, Clarence, who has special needs. A filing on behalf of Clarence read, \u201dKecalf Franklin, throughout his life, has not exhibited or displayed any ability or inclination to support himself and lacks the financial knowledge or ability to act as a fiduciary.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement released after the hearing, Kecalf said, \u201cOur mother has enriched the world with music, art and service of activism more than half of her life. The loss of our mother has traumatized our family. Despite our grief, we find ourselves in a battle to defend and protect this legacy against those who wish to disrespect, slander and exploit it.\u201d<\/p>\n

An attorney for Owens defended her handling of Franklin\u2019s estate so far, citing the $1.1 million earned from the documentary, Amazing Grace<\/em><\/a> and her management of the estate\u2019s tangled finances, including the $6.3 million owed to the IRS<\/a> in back taxes (Franklin was apparently lackadaisical when it came to accounting, at one point stashing $750,000 in uncashed checks in her purse for months).<\/p>\n

Elsewhere during the hearing, it was revealed that Franklin\u2019s four sons have each received $350,000 from the estate since the singer\u2019s death, while it was ostensibly confirmed that $178,000 was fraudulently taken<\/a> from Franklin\u2019s bank account months before her death. Other topics of discussion included the stalled status of a planned Franklin biopic<\/a> starring Jennifer Hudson (Owens\u2019 lawyer suggested the estate wasn\u2019t pleased with what the studio, MGM, was offering), and what to do with Franklin\u2019s personal items, especially those of potential historical significance. Several museums have reportedly reached out to the estate, as has former President Barack Obama, who is seeking the hat Franklin wore<\/a> to his inauguration in 2009.<\/p>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aretha Franklin\u2019s heirs vied for control over her estate at a periodically testy hearing in Oakland County, Michigan Tuesday. The hearing ended with Judge Jennifer Callaghan putting the estate\u2019s administration partly under court supervision, the Detroit Free Press reports. The court will play an active role in many major decisions, such as property sales, though […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2447255","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-25 21:33:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2447255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447255\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2447255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2447255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2447255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}