Should a 57 year dead person be exhumed?

That is the question which will be facing the Supreme Court of Texas tomorrow (Sept. 29, 2005) when it hears oral argument is a pair of cases (In re the John G. & Marie Stella Kenedy Memorial Foundation and In re Frost National Bank) involving the Kenedy (that’s with one “n”) estate.

John G. Kenedy, Jr. was the heir to an enormous ranch deep in South Texas.  John died in 1948 and his estate passed to his wife and sister.

Five years ago, Ray was visiting with his grandmother.  Just before she died, she remarked that he looked like his John, his “grandfather.”  Ray then started an investigation and set up a website to see if it was possible that his mother, Ann, was actually John’s non-marital child and sole heir to the Kenedy fortune valued at up to $1 billion.

Attorneys for the charities which now control most of the property tracable to John’s estate claim that the estate was closed decades ago and it is irrelevant whether Ann is or is not John’s child.

On the other hand, Ann claims that she has a right to prove her paternity and then seek whatever portion of the estate to which she may be entitled.

See John MacCormack, Kenedy Legal Case Back in Court, San Antonio Express-News, Sept. 26, 2005.