COLUMBIA, S.C. – The Godfather of Soul's dying wish to help educate needy children is a big step closer to being fulfilled, now that South Carolina's Supreme Court -- weighing into a 14-year-old legal saga yet again — has ruled that James Brown's last partner was not legally married to him.
In an unanimous ruling on Wednesday, the state's justices wrote that Tomi Rae Hynie, a former partner of Brown's who claimed to be his wife, failed to annul a previous marriage, and therefore did not have a right to his multimillion-dollar estate.Brown's union with Hynie has long been the center of the evolving legal troubles following his death at the age of 73 on Christmas Day 2006.