A Michigan jury has determined that Aretha Franklin‘s 2014 final will and testament, which was discovered by her niece Sabrina Owens in notebook on a couch at her house in 2018 after Franklin passed away, is a legal will, according to reporting from The Associated Press and documents seen by Pitchfork. The ruling resolves a disagreement between Kecalf, Edward Franklin, and Ted White Jr., two of Franklin’s sons. White supported a will written in 2010 and discovered in a locked filing cabinet, claiming that his mother would generally have essential papers made by a lawyer.
Although Franklin didn’t have a formal, typewritten will, any document written by Franklin is regarded by Michigan law as a legitimate will. Three handwritten wills were discovered by Owens months after Franklin passed away in 2018. The two wills in question are two of the three. The 2014 will leaves Franklin’s home in the Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills to Kecalf Franklin and the singer’s grandchildren, while the 2010 will leaves all of the money from the singer’s music collection to her sons. The stipulation that Kecalf and Edward “must take business classes and get a certificate or a degree” to draw benefits from the inheritance is not there in the handwritten 2014 version, despite the fact that the 2010 will names Owens and White as co-executors.
The Oakland County Probate Judge Jennifer S. Callaghan ordered both parties to file briefs and attend a status conference the following week to decide whether or not some aspects of 2010 will be carried out. Thus, the conflict between the two wills is not entirely addressed. Kecalf Franklin might possibly be chosen as the estate’s executor.
The FBI tracked Franklin’s civil rights activism, particularly her friendships with Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. and Angela Davis, according to a declassified FBI dossier that came to light last year. Jennifer Hudson played Franklin in the biopic Respect in 2021, and she later gave a performance of “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony that same year. Songs of Faith: Aretha Gospel, a compilation of Franklin’s earliest recordings made in Detroit when she was 14 years old, was published in 2019 by her estate. Franklin was also posthumously given the Pulitzer Prize for her lifetime contributions.
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