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DNA testing confirms at least 2 more children for James Brown


The Associated Press
Published August 3, 2007
The late soul singer James Brown is the father of at least two other children, his longtime adviser and trustee Buddy Dallas said Friday.

DNA testing has been done on about a dozen people who claimed the singer was their father, Dallas said. Several of the tests have come back negative for Brown's paternity, while others were pending, said Dallas, who did not have the exact numbers Friday night.

Dallas refused to identify the two people whose DNA showed they were Brown's children, but The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle reported that LaRhonda Petitt, a 45-year-old retired airline stewardess and teacher living in Houston, showed the newspaper a report that says there is a 99.99 percent probability she is Brown's daughter.

She would be the oldest of Brown's children. The Associated Press could not immediately reach her for comment.

Brown picked out Petitt's mother from a crowd at a show in Los Angeles in the early 1960s. She became the singer's girlfriend, sometimes ironing his shirts before his shows, Petitt said.

But when her mother became pregnant, she split with Brown and moved back to Houston. She would point to the television when Brown was performing and tell her daughter that the singer was her father, Petitt told the newspaper.

Petitt said she met Brown at concerts and spoke to him over the phone, but he never acknowledged being her father.

"I was angry that he was out there making all this money, and he wasn't doing anything for my mother and me," Petitt told the newspaper. "I could have had a better life."

Brown died on Dec. 25 from heart failure in an Atlanta hospital. His body wasn't laid to rest until March, when he was entombed in a crypt at the home of one of his daughters.

Brown's will names six children. It is being disputed in court.

Dallas said one possible child of Brown that hasn't undergone a DNA test is 6-year-old James Brown II, the son of Tomi Rae Hynie. Hynie was one of Brown's backup singers and said she is the singer's fourth wife. But Brown's attorneys continue to dispute that claim and the boy and his mother are not in the singer's will

In court papers filed in recent weeks, Dallas said Brown told him James II was not his child and instead of calling him "son," referred to him as "little man."

Petitt's lawyer, Jim Griffin, said whether she makes a claim to Brown's estate depends on whether the will holds up. Griffin said he would at least like Petitt's two daughters to be eligible for a trust the signer set up to pay for his grandchildren's education.

Petitt said she has grown less bitter about Brown as the years have passed.

I love my daddy," she told the newspaper. "When I hear my daddy's music, it just freezes me."

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Hell yeah. If I was James Browns progeny I'd shout it out.

YEAH!

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