Excerpted from the Nashville Tennessean, Nov. 5, 1997:
Sale of Reeves' Assets Approved
By KIRK LOGGINS
The sale of country singing star Jim Reeves' widow's assets -- to United Shows of America Inc. for $7.3 million -- was approved yesterday by Probate Judge Frank Clement, Jr.
But Clement said he wants to hear more evidence before deciding whether to approve a July 1996 trust agreement in which Mary Reeves Davis gave half of the sale price to her second husband, Terry Davis, who had no ownership interest in the property being sold.
Mary Reeves Davis, 68, who is now suffering from Alzheimer's disease and is confined to a nursing home, signed the trust agreement just 2-1/2 months after she had signed another trust document giving Terry Davis $5,000 per month for life, but providing that any funds left after they both died would go to charity.
"I'm not of the opinion that Mr. Davis has done anything wrong, but I believe it is an issue that needs to be addressed," Clement said, after a four-hour hearing. Tennessee law requires "clear and convincing evidence" that anyone benefiting from a transaction involving "a confidential relationship" did not use "undue influence" to push the deal through, Clement said.
Mary Reeves Davis' nephew, the Rev. William H. White, whom Clement appointed as her conservator in August, recommended yesterday that the judge approve both the sale to Nolensville-based United Shows and the trust agreement benefiting Terry Davis.
White, who is a Baptist minister in Dallas, Texas, testified that his uncle, Dr. W.D. White, said on his deathbed that he believed Mary Reeves Davis regretted signing the first trust agreeement, which provided relatively little for Terry Davis, her husband of 28 years.
Clement had named W.D. White, a professor at the University of North Carolina, as his sister's conservator last January, but White died last Spring.
William H. White acknowledged yesterday, under questioning by Horton Frank, the lawer for Jim Reeves' niece Lani Thomas Arnold, that United Shows chairman Ed Gregory has taken him to several social events, including the Country Music Awards show, since Clement made him his aunt's conservator.
But White said he does not believe that affected his judgment. He said he feels the $7.3 million sales contract is the best deal his aunt's estate is likely to get.
Her nursing home and medical bills are currently running about $6,500 a month, but have gone as high as $15,000 a month, said Attorney George Cate, representing White.
Mary Reevs Davis, who has spent the past 18 months in nursing homes in Murfreesboro and Nashville, "is not getting any better" but may live for "a number of years," Cate said.
The sales contract wth United Shows, which Mary Reeves Davis signed in June 1996, has been held up in Probate Court while Arnold questioned whether Mary Reeves Davis was mentally competent when she signed both the sales agreement and the trust agreement benefiting her husband.
Arnold, who lives in Shreveport, La., had urged Mary Reeves Davis to sign an earlier trust agreement, in April 1996. Arnold had hoped to arrange the transfer of much of Jim Reeves' memorabilia to Shreveport, where he began his singing career in the 1950s, and to Reeves' hometown of Carthage, Texas, where he is buried.
The sale approved by Clement includes Jim Reeves memorabilia; rights to his name and record royalties; the Jim Reeves Museum property at 5007 S. Gallatin Road,; four other tracts in Madison; a 305-acre farm in Rutherford County; and a five-acre tract in Sevier County (near Pigeon Forge).
Clement agreed to let Terry Davis have $20,000 a month in estate funds, pending a resolution of the dispute over the trust agreement.
(Editor's Note: Frank Clement, Jr. is the son of Frank Clement, Sr., who was a good friend of Jim's and Governor of Tennessee when Reeves was killed. In fact, Clement Sr. even provided a National Guard plane to transport the singer's body to Texas for burial. Yet the son sided with those taking the estate away from Mary. Also -- the $20,000 a month continues to be paid to Davis a year later).