James Brown

DNA Test Links Two New Siblings to The Late James Brown

James Brown

James Brown’s estate has revealed two new legitimate offspring, fathered by the late James Brown, after a dozen people where tested. Buddy Dallas, Brown's longtime attorney, told the Augusta Chronicle that tests came up negative for some individuals and other results are still pending. But two so far have conclusively established that the Sex Machine had fathered at least two children out of wedlock. Citing privacy reasons, Dallas refused to identify the people with matching genes. However, the Chronicle fingered one of them as LaRhonda Petitt, a 45-year-old retired flight attendant and teacher from Houston. "I broke down crying," Petitt said upon learning that the DNA test established a 99.99 percent certainty that she was indeed the Mr. Dynamite's daughter. Petitt told the Chronicle that her mother, Ruby Shannon, met Brown at a concert in the early 1960s and the two carried on an affair while the singer was still married to his first wife, Velma Warren. Pettit, who is the oldest of Brown's kids, says she has become more forgiving of her neglecting father over the years. "I love my daddy," she said. "When I hear my daddy's music, it just freezes me." Brown died last Christmas of heart failure at age 73.