The grief of losing their father is just too much for B.B. King’s daughters to bear. The pair are alleging the 15-time Grammy Award-winning blues singer was poisoned, leading homicide detectives to investigate and subsequently perform an autopsy on his embalmed body on Sunday, May 24, 2015. Daughters Karen Williams and Patty King allege King’s business manager, LaVerne Toney; and his personal assistant, Myron Johnson, killed their father. Their lawyer shared those documents with The Associated Press. Clark County, Nevada, Coroner John Fudenberg says it will take eight weeks for the results of the autopsy to be returned. King had long suffered from type 2 diabetes.
Over eight years ago, on Jan. 18, 2007, B.B. King appointed his business manager, LaVerne Toney, executor of his estate. His daughter, Riletta Williams, whose name is the feminine version of his birth name, Riley, was his alternate/second executor. She died in September 2014. Patty, who reportedly served time in a Gainesville, Florida, jail on drug charges in the early ’90s, claims she was not allowed to see her father for a week after he died on May 14. She and Williams, along with sisters Rita Washington and Barbara King Winfree, and brother Willie King raised suspicions last week during a viewing of King’s body, which took place on May 21. On Thursday, they revealed they didn’t think their father looked like himself. They also alleged they were prevented from taking pictures of him in the casket.
Memorials are planned this week in Memphis, Tennessee, and Indianola, Mississippi, for the Blues hall-of-famer.
On Saturday, May 23 at 11 a.m. a memorial service was held at a Palm Mortuary chapel near downtown Las Vegas for family and friends only; eight of his surviving 11 children and 35 grandchildren attended. Musicians Carlos Santana and Richie Sambora attended. The blues icon’s closed casket was surrounded by flowers — his two guitars, both named Lucille — and a tapestry depicting him picking a note from a section of the guitar with his eyes clenched. African Methodist Episcopal pastor Pamela Myrtis Mason officiated.
Plans also call for a Wednesday procession with his body down Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee, and a Handy Park tribute on Wednesday, May 27.After that, King’s body will be driven to Mississippi for another ceremony and burial on Saturday, May 30 at the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center in Indianola, Mississippi.
King’s eldest daughter, Shirley King, who lives in Chicago and performs as Daughter of the Blues, performed during a free musical tribute event starting after the public viewing. “I don’t want to be part of the argument over his life,” she said to the media. “I don’t want to fight with family. I don’t want to fight with management. When everybody gets through being sad about him leaving, I want them to come out and let the good times roll and be happy about his life.”
