James Brown Laid to Rest (Finally)

Tue., Mar. 13, 2007 3:22 PM PDT by Josh Grossberg

The Hardest Working Man in Show Business can finally rest in peace...at least for a while.

James Brown's body was placed in a crypt at the Beech Island, South Carolina, home of daughter Deanna Brown Thomas over the weekend, more than two and a half months after the iconic singer died.

Brown succumbed to heart failure on Christmas Day at age 73 at an Atlanta hospital. In the days that followed, he was eulogized in both a highly elaborate public memorial at the Apollo Theater in New York and a private funeral in Augusta, Georgia, but his six adult offspring declined to inter his remains right away because they could not agree on a final resting spot.

Instead, his body was preserved first in a climate-controlled room at his own 60-acre Beech Island residence before being moved to an undisclosed location, where it was tended by the head of a local funeral home.

About 50 of the singer's family members and close friends gathered at noon on Saturday for a quiet ceremony at Thomas' home, located about three miles from Brown's estate.

"I think we all had tears in our eyes," Brown's assistant, Elif Pessman, told Columbia, South Carolina's WIS-TV. "We released white balloons, just beautiful. We looked up to the sky and we couldn't see it no more."

Among those in attendance was Tomi Rae Hynie, Brown's disputed fourth wife and mother of his five-year-old son, James Brown Jr. Calling herself Brown's "omitted spouse," Hynie is seeking half of Brown's estate. Neither she nor her son were named in the singer's will, which was signed in 2001, before the birth of James Jr.

(Last month, the family and Hynie reached a deal to have DNA samples taken from Brown's body to establish paternity of James Jr. and in case anyone else decided to come forward claiming to have had a love child with the Sex Machine.)

The Reverend Al Sharpton, who was once Brown's tour manager in the '70s and considers the performer a mentor, presided over the service. He issued a statement indicating the family wanted to put aside their legal differences and privately send off the Godfather of Soul.

"Where he is now has nothing to do with court proceedings," Sharpton said.

In a sign a reconciliation may be in the offing, James Jr. was given the honor of leading the processional.

One person who wasn't at Saturday's service was Brown's longtime lawyer, Buddy Dallas, one of three of trustees of Brown's estate.

Brown's heirs, joined by Hynie, have sued Dallas and the other executors, accountant David Cannon and lawyer Alford "Judge" Bradley, removed out of concern their father's affairs were being mismanaged and in danger of being "lost or dissipated or stolen."

While acknowledging he was not included in Saturday's service, to honor the family's request, Dallas also pointed out that several other close friends of Brown's were also not invited.

"It was just worked out with the lawyers. The children only wanted one [executor]," he told E! Online "It was adjusted to his children's desires."

The tomb at his daughter's residence is only a temporary pit stop for Brown.

As E! Online first reported, the family and Hynie are working on carrying out his wish that his Beech Island mansion be transformed into a museum and public mausoleum along the lines of Elvis Presley's Graceland.

Work is currently at a standstill due to pending litigation, but once it's done, his body is expected to be moved there. No word yet when it will open to the public.