Current:Home > StocksJudge cites handwritten will and awards real estate to Aretha Franklin’s sons -Ascend Wealth Education
Judge cites handwritten will and awards real estate to Aretha Franklin’s sons
View
Date:2025-04-13 12:48:57
DETROIT (AP) — A judge overseeing the estate of Aretha Franklin awarded real estate to the late star’s sons, citing a handwritten will from 2014 that was found between couch cushions.
The decision Monday came four months after a Detroit-area jury said the document was a valid will under Michigan law, despite scribbles and many hard-to-read passages. Franklin had signed it and put a smiley face in the letter “A.”
The papers will override a handwritten will from 2010 that was found at Franklin’s suburban Detroit home around the same time in 2019, the judge said.
One of her sons, Kecalf Franklin, will get that property, which was valued at $1.1 million in 2018, but is now worth more. A lawyer described it as the “crown jewel” before trial last July.
Another son, Ted White II, who had favored the 2010 will, was given a house in Detroit, though it was sold by the estate for $300,000 before the dueling wills had emerged.
“Teddy is requesting the sale proceeds,” Charles McKelvie, an attorney for Kecalf Franklin, said Tuesday.
Judge Jennifer Callaghan awarded a third son, Edward Franklin, another property under the 2014 will.
Aretha Franklin had four homes when she died of pancreatic cancer in 2018. The discovery of the two handwritten wills months after her death led to a dispute between the sons over what their mother wanted to do with her real estate and other assets.
One of the properties, worth more than $1 million, will likely be sold and the proceeds shared by four sons. The judge said the 2014 will didn’t clearly state who should get it.
“This was a significant step forward. We’ve narrowed the remaining issues,” McKelvie said of the estate saga.
There’s still a dispute over how to handle Aretha Franklin’s music assets, though the will appears to indicate that the sons would share any income. A status conference with the judge is set for January.
Franklin was a global star for decades, known especially for hits in the late 1960s like “Think,” “I Say a Little Prayer” and “Respect.”
___
Follow Ed White at http://twitter.com/edwritez
veryGood! (8)
Related
- In ‘Nickel Boys,’ striving for a new way to see
- Rick Carlisle shares story about how Bill Walton secured all-access Grateful Dead passes
- Jimmy Kimmel's son Billy, 7, undergoes third open-heart surgery
- T-Mobile acquires US Cellular assets for $4.4 billion as carrier aims to boost rural connectivity
- Federal Spending Freeze Could Have Widespread Impact on Environment, Emergency Management
- NASA discovers potentially habitable exoplanet 40 light years from Earth
- Brittany Cartwright Claps Back at Comments on Well-Being of Her and Jax Taylor's Son Cruz
- Stewart-Haas Racing to close NASCAR teams at end of 2024 season, says time to ‘pass the torch’
- The company planning a successor to Concorde makes its first supersonic test
- Tom Selleck, Brittney Griner, RuPaul and more top celebrity memoirs of 2024
Ranking
- EU countries double down on a halt to Syrian asylum claims but will not yet send people back
- Former mayor of South Dakota town charged in shooting deaths of 3 men
- Elon Musk's xAI startup raises $24 billion in funding
- Hundreds mourn gang killings of a Haitian mission director and a young American couple
- The city of Chicago is ordered to pay nearly $80M for a police chase that killed a 10
- Melinda French Gates announces $1 billion donation to support women and families, including reproductive rights
- Girl, 14, accused of killing grandmother in South Florida
- Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s Relationship With Ex Ryan Anderson Reaches a Boiling Point in Docuseries Trailer
Recommendation
Former longtime South Carolina congressman John Spratt dies at 82
Federal investigation of former Ohio House speaker ends with no charges filed
Biden campaign sends allies De Niro and first responders to Trump’s NY trial to put focus on Jan. 6
Layoffs can be part of running a small business. Some tips for owners on handling them
'Most Whopper
New court challenge filed in Pennsylvania to prevent some mail-in ballots from getting thrown out
A `gustnado’ churns across a Michigan lake. Experts say these small whirlwinds rarely cause damage
Two escaped Louisiana inmates found in dumpster behind Dollar General, two others still at large