Estate Battle Rages

Her romantic watercolors and sketches of old-fashioned family farm life made Tasha Tudor a beloved children's illustrator. The clever marketing of her back-to-basics lifestyle - weaving and gardening while raising goats, chickens, and children on her New England farm - made Tudor a cult hero to craftswomen, an unconventional Martha Stewart.

But Tudor's death last June exposed a much less endearing image of the eccentric artist's own family. Three of her four children were cut out of her will almost entirely. The 92-year-old artist left her home, her copyrights and her business - called "Tasha Tudor & Family" - to one son and grandson who still cultivate her brand. The other three children are contesting the will in Marlboro Probate Court, accusing their brother, Seth, of wielding improper influence over their mother to claim an estate worth more than $2 million. Seth, in court papers, has branded the claims as a baseless attack on a valid will.

The dispute over the estate was frustratingly easy to anticipate, said Tudor's youngest child, Efner Tudor Holmes, now 60. "Some of the last words she said to me were, 'Oh, will there ever be a cat and dogfight when I die. But I don't care. I won't be here to see it."

Full Article and Source:
The fall of the House of Tudor