James Brown?

Question

Why is James Brown not buried yet? Is he in a freezer or in his livingroom?

Answer 1

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- James Brown has yet to rest in peace.

The soul singer's embalmed body lies in a sealed casket at his South Carolina home while his family and attorneys argue over his estate and burial place.

Brown died December 25.

Such posthumous problems are not new. While burial battles like Brown's are rare, family dramas have haunted famous folks well into the afterlife.

The list includes athletes, musicians, movie stars and others.

"It's just the nature of families," said Joelle Drucker, an attorney with Greenberg Traurig in Los Angeles.

"If you don't get along, if there's a prior marriage with children and conflicting interests, there's always going to be fighting. It tends to be the norm rather than the exception."

The family of baseball great Ted Williams started fighting immediately after his death in 2002.

Williams' son, John Henry, said his dad wanted to be cryogenically frozen.

But Williams' daughter from a previous marriage, Barbara Joyce Ferrell, insisted Williams wanted to be cremated, as indicated in his will.

After he died, the Hall of Famer was decapitated and his head and body were frozen separately.

The legal fight continued more than two years after Williams' death, when Ferrell dropped the case.

Cremation is not problem-free either.

Four years after actor Peter Lawford's death, his ashes were removed from a crypt at a Los Angeles cemetery because his children reportedly refused to pay the funeral bills.

The ashes were turned over to Lawford's fourth wife, who scattered them in the Pacific Ocean. Then one of Lawford's friends came forward, claiming he had already dumped most of Lawford's ashes into the ocean four years earlier during a drunken party just after the actor's death.

Public figures usually establish their burial plans well ahead of time, said Ron Hast, publisher of Mortuary Management, a national monthly magazine for the funeral industry.

Burials typically take place no more than seven days after death. Some religious traditions require even more timely interment.

But burial is not enough to end some family feuds.

Lawsuits continue to be filed years after Marlon Brando's 2004 death. The actor's former caregiver sued the executors of his estate in July claiming she was forced out of a house Brando bought for her.

A former Brando business manager also sued the actor's estate in 2005, claiming sexual harassment and wrongful termination.

Fights over child support and paternity issues continued for more than a year after singer Ray Charles died in June 2004.

Sometimes the arguments begin while the prominent person is still alive. The family of 88-year-old evangelist Billy Graham is already at odds over where his final resting place will be.

One son wants him buried near the family home in North Carolina, while another wants Graham's grave located near the evangelical center that bears his name.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Music/01/11/dead.celebrities.ap/index.html

Answer 2

Stupidity. I think the family is fighting over his estate. Once again it's all about money. I think the family want to do a Graceland thing like Elvis. That white lady wasn't his wife legally. I think she was a girlfriend or common law wife. James Brown was up in age when he passed away. So I hope. He stopped hitting on woman.

Answer 3

I don't think it's a freezer, just the casket sitting in the living room.

And I think it's all because of the family having conflicts with his widow

Answer 4

This is what happens when you die without a clear cut will and too many children who cannot agree what to do with dad. Sad.

Answer 5

I beleive they planted him around the first of the year.

Answer 6

Coz his wife hasnt finished beating him like he did to her

Answer 7

wow, that is messed up