Published on apnews.com
By Ed White, July 6th, 2023
Five years after her death, the final wishes of music superstar Aretha Franklin are still unsettled. An unusual trial begins next Monday to determine which of two handwritten wills, including one found in couch cushions, will guide how her estate is handled.
The Queen of Soul, who had four sons, did not have a formal, typewritten will in place, despite years of health problems and efforts to get one done. But under Michigan law, it’s still possible to treat other documents — with scribbles, scratch-outs and hard-to-read passages — as her commands.
The dispute is pitting a son against other sons.
Ted White II believes papers dated in 2010 should mainly control the estate, while Kecalf Franklin and Edward Franklin favor a 2014 document. Both were discovered in Franklin’s suburban Detroit home, months after her death from pancreatic cancer in 2018 at age 76.
“Two inconsistent wills cannot both be admitted to probate. In such cases the most recent will revokes the previous will,” Charles McKelvie, a lawyer for Kecalf Franklin, said in a court filing in favor of the 2014 document.
But White’s attorney, Kurt Olson, said the 2010 will was notarized and signed, while the later version “is merely a draft.”
“If this document were intended to be a will there would have been more care than putting it in a spiral notebook under a couch cushion,” Olson said.
For five years, Aretha Franklin’s estate has been handled at different times by three executors.
Does it surprise me that someone passed away before they had their ducks in a row? The answer is never… This can be settled any time, on the steps, halfway through trial. And hopefully it will be. Going to a jury trial is a war.
Pat Simasko, Michigan State University College of Law
