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Four funerals held for James Brown, but no burial as family bickers over location

Four funeral services attended by pop stars, civil rights leaders and tens of thousands of fans gave James Brown a send-off in keeping with his status as one of the music world's greatest showmen.

But more than two weeks after his Christmas Day death from congestive heart failure, the Godfather of Soul still refuses to leave the stage quietly.

His body remains in a sealed coffin in a chilled room at his locked South Carolina mansion while his family tussle over a burial site, and his partner prepares a legal challenge for access to the couple's possessions.

The unseemly squabble over Brown's estate, between his children and the woman they claim is no more than an estranged former girlfriend, threatens to rumble on. Tomi Rae Hynie, 36, says she has been locked out of the mansion on Beech Island which she shared with Brown, who died aged 73, and the couple's five-year-old son, James Junior.

Hynie said she has also hired a bodyguard.

"I'm afraid that someone is gonna give me a hot shot, walking down the street. I have big fears of that," she said on the US celebrity TV show The Insider.

Buddy Dallas, the singer's friend and attorney, has challenged the validity of Brown's marriage to Hynie. He said the gates to the mansion were locked to protect Brown's possessions from souvenir hunters. The house would remain sealed until after Brown's will was read and his children, as trustees, could finally agree on where their father will be buried. Hynie would have no role in that decision.

Meanwhile, Jacque Hollander, who claims the singer raped her at gunpoint in 1988 while she was his publicist, has said she will pursue a US$106 million damages claim against his estate.

Meanwhile, in Atmore, Alabama, a man shot a friend after an argument over Brown's height, police said.

Dan Gulley Jr, 70, was charged with assault in connection with the shooting of David James Brooks Jr, 62, on Monday, police said.

Gulley shot Brooks twice in the abdomen, and Brooks went to his car, got a gun and shot at Gulley but missed, officers told the Press-Register newspaper.

Information on Brooks' condition was not available. Officers did not believe alcohol was a factor.
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