Nina Simone was an American singer, composer, pianist, and civil rights activist who was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon on February 21, 1933. Classical, folk, gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, and pop music impacted her work.
Her father, John Divine Waymon, owned and operated a barbershop, a dry cleaner, and a nightclub, and her mother, Mary Kate Irvin, was a Methodist pastor. The sixth of eight children in a poor home, she began playing piano at the age of three or four; the first song she learned was “God Be With You, Till We Meet Again”.
She showed off her piano skills at the local church. When she was twelve years old, she gave her first classical performance. Simone later stated that her parents, who were in the first row, were forced to shift to the back of the hall during the performance to make a place for white people.
Who inherited Nina Simone money and estate?
Nina Simone passed away in 2003, and her daughter Lisa Simone Kelly was named administrator of both her estate and a charitable trust established ‘for the musical education of black African youngsters in Africa.’
According to The Daily Beast, Kelly was accused of “breaching her fiduciary obligation to both the estate and trust, reportedly draining up to $2 million from its coffers, including a $1.5 million payment into her own firm” in 2013.
