A document handwritten by singer Aretha Franklin and found on her couch after her death in 2018 is a valid will in Michigan, a jury said Tuesday, a critical twist in a dispute that has pitted her children.
It’s a victory for Kecalf Franklin and Edward Franklin, whose lawyers had argued that documents dated 2014 should overturn a 2010 will that was discovered around the same time in a locked cabinet at Queen of Soul’s suburban home. detroit.
The jury deliberated less than an hour after a brief trial that began Monday. After the verdict was read, Aretha Franklin’s grandchildren stepped forward from the front row to hug Kecalf and Edward.
“I’m very, very happy. I just wanted my mother’s wishes to come true,” Kecalf Franklin said. “We just want to breathe out right now. It’s been a long five years for my family, my children.”
Aretha Franklin did not leave a formal typewritten will when she died five years ago at age 76. But both documents, with scribbles and hard-to-decipher passages, surfaced suddenly in 2019 when a niece toured the house looking for records.
In closing arguments, lawyers for two of Franklin’s sons said there is nothing legally significant about finding the handwritten documents in a notebook on his couch. It is “inconsequential. … You can take your will and leave it on the kitchen counter. It remains his will,” Charles McKelvie said before the jury began deliberations.
Kecalf and Edward teamed up against brother Ted White II, who favored the 2010 will. White’s attorney, Kurt Olson, noted that the 2010 will was under lock and key. He said it’s much more significant than the papers found on a sofa.
Franklin’s estate managers have been paying bills, paying off millions in tax debts and generating revenue through music royalties and other intellectual property. The will dispute, however, has been an unfinished business.
There are differences between the 2010 and 2014 versions, although both seem to indicate that Franklin’s four children would share the revenue from music and royalties.
But under the 2014 will, Kecalf Franklin and his grandchildren would get his mother’s main home in Bloomfield Hills, which was valued at $1.1 million when she died but is worth much more today.
The larger will said Kecalf, 53, and Edward Franklin, 64, “must take business classes and obtain a certificate or degree” to benefit from the estate. That provision is not in the 2014 version.
White, who played guitar with Aretha Franklin, testified against the 2014 will, saying her mother would normally have important documents done “conventionally and legally” and with the help of a lawyer.
Franklin was a global star for decades, known especially for hits like “Think,” “I Say a Little Prayer” and “Respect.”
