Lionel Hampton's Will
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From the NY Daily News
By HELEN PETERSON
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
He was a jazz legend who earned millions during a career that spanned
more than seven decades. But when Lionel Hampton died last summer at
94, he was just about broke.
Hampton left an estate worth $159,942.60 and owed more than $200,000
in back state and federal taxes, according to a will filed for probate
in Manhattan Surrogate's Court.
Friends of the great vibraphonist blamed his predicament on expensive
health care costs, his own generosity, periods of bad management and
bad luck.
"The good news is that Lionel had a fabulous life, and I don't think
he wanted for anything, even at the end," said Timothy Francis,
executor of his estate.
In his last years, Hampton suffered a series of strokes and was
attended to by private-duty nurses full time, said his lawyer Jethro
Eisenstein.
"Welcome to the world of long-term care. When you are old and want to
stay at home, to live as Lionel Hampton did, with people to take care
of him around the clock, was really quite expensive," Eisenstein said.
"He was able to maintain his household and live the way he lived when
he was entertaining the world," Eisenstein said. "I think the money
that was spent to take care of him around the clock was well-spent."
Deal with the IRS
Hampton's manager, Phil Leshin, discovered the tax arrears when he
started working for the vibraphonist in 1998.
Eisenstein said Hampton's previous handlers should have made sure the
taxes were paid but didn't. He said Leshin worked out an arrangement
with the IRS in which it agreed to hold off collecting the back taxes
until after Hampton's death.
That way, Eisenstein said, Hampton could maintain his standard of
living and the taxes could be paid by royalties that came in after his
death.
Francis said Hampton was a generous man.
"He took care of people in his life and supported many philanthropic
causes," Francis said. What's left, he said, "is just a small glimpse
of a fabulous life."
Apartment fire
In 1997, Hampton lost a lifetime of memorabilia when his upper West
Side apartment was engulfed in a blaze caused by a halogen lamp.
Leshin said Hampton sued the lamp company but he was sued by other
people in the building whose apartments were damaged by the fire.
In the end, Hampton ended up with a settlement of about $100,000 from
the lamp company, which also agreed to settle with the people suing
him, Leshin said.
Francis said that once the back taxes are paid, royalties from the
jazzman's compositions and recordings will go to various charities.
One beneficiary probably will be the University of Idaho, which named
its School of Music and its annual jazz festival after Hampton