A Michigan jury has ruled that a set of handwritten notes found under Aretha Franklin‘s sofa stand as a valid will, according to a report by the Associated Press.
Jurors deliberated for almost an hour on Tuesday before determining that the handwritten documents discovered under a sofa cushion by Franklin’s niece were legally binding documents of record they had been signed by the “Respect” singer in 2014.
Lawyers for the singer’s sons Kecalf Franklin and Edward Franklin won the case that argued the 2014 documents were valid and superseded a 2010 version of the will that Franklin had left in a safe before she died of pancreatic cancer in 2018. The 2010 pages were discovered in a locked cabinet — and by the same niece who discovered the 2014 version — in Franklin’s Detroit home.
The opposing documents — each decorated with scribbles and long-winded notes — sparked a debate between the estate that lasted over four years. The family initially believed Franklin had not left behind a will but were stumped when they found two versions of the document in 2019.
“I’m very, very happy. I just wanted my mother’s wishes to be adhered to,” Kecalf Franklin said. “We just want to exhale right now. It’s been a long five years for my family, my children.”
Franklin, known by many as the Queen of Soul, was the most lauded female R&B vocalist of her era. Winner of 18 Grammy Awards, and a Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement honoree in 1994, she became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. She was the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Arts and the Kennedy Center Honors.
