The daughter and widow of the late Chicago blues musician Muddy Waters will go to court Thursday over Waters' estate to challenge ownership of assets, including copyrights to his music.
Mercy Morganfield, Waters' daughter, filed a petition on behalf of Marva Morganfield, his widow, ahead of the probate hearing Thursday, according to the Chicago Tribune. In the petition, Morganfield asks that Waters' estate be reopened and Morganfield appointed administrator to distribute the remaining assets, which include the copyrights.
The executor of Waters' estate was the late Scott Cameron, who used to manage the musician. Cameron then managed his estate, which closed in 1987, when Waters' died in 1983.
Cameron died in February, and the executor duties were handed off to the Missouri-based Cameron Organisation. Now, the Morganfields would like to take over.
The Morganfields have received regular royalty payments since Waters' death, but Mercy Morganfield alleges in the petition that Cameron missed a payment in December. She also claims he did not provide proper estate accounting, according to the Tribune.
Attorneys representing the Cameron Organisation said the Morganfields do not have the legal standing to reopen the estate, the Tribune reported.
Waters was born in rural Mississippi, but his music career picked up when he moved to Chicago and entered the blues scene on the South Side. He lived the last 10 years of his life in suburban Westmont, and his will was probated in DuPage County, according to the Tribune.
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The blues musician produced several hits throughout the 1950s through the 1970s, and he worked with big-name English rock-and-roll musicians, like Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, who cite Waters as an influence in their own music.
