Screamin' Jay Hawkins's Kids Ask Oprah For Help

04/28/2000 3:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Craig Rosen

(4/28/00, 3 p.m. ET) - When flamboyant blues singer Screamin' Jay Hawkins died in February, a search for his "missing" children was launched. Hawkins had admitted to fathering 57 children over the years and expressed regret that he never got to know most of them. Soon after his death, Hawkins's friend and biographer Maral Nigolian helped to spearhead the search for the singer's children by setting up a website (www.jayskids.com).

Hundreds of submissions from people claiming to be children of Hawkins have been logged on the website. Nigolian explained the progress they have made, ["Considering that we've really been up and running about a month or six weeks now, we've found or identified ten children, so that's a pretty good success. And I would say I have, conservatively, 24 -- two dozen at least, up to 30 names -- that I am very seriously going through reviewing."

Of the children found, several have had the opportunity to meet each other. Nigolian said that as the search continues and more children are found, she would like to arrange some type of a group meeting. ["They're all just dying to have a chance to somehow... we're working really hard right now in trying to find a way to get them all in one place so they can all meet and everybody wants to see it happen, so I don't know. We're hoping somebody like Oprah says 'Come on by' and lets, just actually let them meet and so we can all see it. I don't know how else to do it."

The ages of the children could range from teens to 50s, and it is believed most of them live in the United States, although submissions have been received from as far away as Australia. Nigolian is searching for a child she believes is from Tokyo. The reading of Hawkins's will takes place next month and Nigolian said they would like to locate as many children as they can by that time because they could be entitled to Hawkins' "reasonable estate and future royalties."

-- Sue Falco, New York

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