Court ends claim to Kenedy family fortune

A nine-year quest to prove that a South Texas woman was the illegitimate daughter of renowned rancher John G. Kenedy Jr. and heir to the legendary family's vast fortune ended in defeat Friday with a flurry of state Supreme Court rulings. Ann Fernandez, now 84, is not entitled to one penny of the fortune, even if she could prove paternity, because she waited too long to challenge Kenedy wills that years ago divided the family's wealth between two charities, the unanimous court said. The combined charities, with deep ties to the Catholic Church, might be worth up to $1 billion. Fernandez's rags-to-riches dream had captivated South Texas, but in four related rulings, the court dismissed a handful of her lawsuits and denied a request to exhume Kenedy's body for DNA testing, saying Fernandez has no viable claim on his inheritance. "In light of today's ruling, we conclude that none of Fernandez's claims for heirship or inheritance rights to the Kenedy estate remain viable," Justice Paul Green wrote for the court. John Kenedy was a hard-drinking, hard-living rogue who died in 1948 without, it was thought, having fathered a child. Maria Rowland was a teenage maid on his ranch, the 400,000-acre La Parra, when she became pregnant and gave birth in 1924 at a Waco home for unwed mothers. Their stories would reconnect in 2000, when a physically deteriorating Rowland told her grandson that he was related to Kenedy, according to Fernandez lawsuits. Rowland died two months later...more