In lawsuits filed against Charles’ former manager, several of his children have asserted that their father’s legacy has been mishandled by the manager and others associated with Ray Charles Enterprises, which holds the rights to his music, and the Ray Charles Foundation.Īt issue are not only money and the family’s standing but also the fate of thousands of musical recordings, videotapes and other artifacts produced during Charles’ long career. Charles exercised iron control over his music and recordings, but his legacy is in disarray, knotted up in legal disputes between the estate’s management and his family members, according to interviews, court documents and correspondence from the California attorney general’s office.īorn Ray Charles Robinson in rural Georgia in 1930, Charles died at 73 in Beverly Hills on June 10, 2004, after a long battle with cancer. The confusion and contention that resulted from that family gathering, the only time so many of the children met with their father as a group, helps explain what has happened since.
