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CNN Live Today

Ted Williams' Children Still Feuding Over Remains

Aired July 16, 2002 - 12:15   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Nearly two weeks after baseball great Ted Williams died, the family is still feuding over what to do with his body: should it be frozen or cremated?

CNN's John Zarrella is here to bring us up to date.

John, you'd think you should just go by what he stated in his will.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we hope we're going to find out what he stated in his will a little later this afternoon. You have two sides in this dispute. You have his oldest daughter, Bobby Jo Williams Ferrell, who is demanding that her father's body be cremated. She insists that that has been his wishes all along. His ashes then scattered over the -- his beloved Florida Keys. And on the other side, you have John Henry Williams and Claudia Williams, the two of them who are saying that their father's wishes really were to have his body brought to a cryonics lab out in Arizona where we believe he is currently frozen.

Now both sides met for about 11 hours yesterday at an attorney's office not far from here. We thought there might be some resolution to the case, but of course it's black and white. There's not a lot of gray area here, either he's cremated or he's frozen. And of course they could not come up with a solution yesterday.

Attorneys for Bobby Jo Williams Ferrell today came out and demanded that the executor of the will go ahead and file that will.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD FITZPATRICK, ATTORNEY FOR BOBBY JO WILLIAMS FERRELL: We will expect and demand Mr. Cassidy (ph), in his capacity as the personal representative of the estate of Ted Williams, to carry out the wishes of Ted Williams as are clearly stated in his last will and testament.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZARRELLA: Now we believe that sometime this afternoon that will indeed be filed here in the Citrus County Courthouse. At that point, we should have a clearer -- we hope we'll have a clearer understanding of what Ted Williams, the Splendid Splinter, the last man to hit 400 in Major League Baseball for the Boston Red Sox, we hope that we'll have a clearer understanding of exactly what he wanted done. But right now it appears that it's going to be headed for a Florida court, a Florida judge to ultimately decide what will happen to Ted Williams' remains -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, John Zarrella, thank you.

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