Tomi Rae Hynie

Tomi Rae Brown (born Tomi Rae Hynie, May 21, 1969) is an American singer who was a companion of James Brown. Brown is the mother of James Joseph Brown II, born June 11, 2001. In January 2015, a court ruled that Hynie was legally married to Brown, and that she was now Brown's widow for purposes of determining the distribution of Brown's estate. The decision was based on the grounds that Hynie's previous marriage was invalid and that James Brown abandoned his efforts to annul his own marriage to Hynie.

Brown worked as a sound alike Janis Joplin impersonator in Las Vegas, Nevada and as a backup singer in the James Brown Revue. She contributed vocals to James Brown's 2001 song "Killing Is Out, School Is In". She formed the all-female rock band, Hardly Dangerous, during the 1980s, and continues to perform with them. More recently, Brown formed the rock and soul band, Godmother of Soul, which also features Quiet Riot bassist and founder, Kelly Garni; former drummer for The Cult, Lez Warner; and guitarist Raven Storm.

Much controversy surrounds Brown's December 2001 marriage to James Brown. According to Brown's longtime attorney, Albert "Buddy" Dallas, the marriage between Brown and Hynie was invalid because Hynie was married at that time to Javed Ahmed, a Pakistani whom Hynie claimed married her for a "green card" in an immigration fraud. Although Hynie stated that her marriage to Javed Ahmed was later annulled, the annulment for Hynie's 1997 marriage to Ahmed did not occur until April 2004. In an interview on CNN with Larry King, Hynie produced a 2001 marriage certificate as proof of her marriage to James Brown, but she did not provide King with court records pointing to an annulment of her marriage to him or to Ahmed.

According to Dallas, Brown was angry and hurt that Hynie concealed her prior marriage to Javed Ahmed from him. Brown moved to file for annulment of his marriage to Hynie, which occurred after he was charged with domestic violence against her. In August 2003, Brown also demonstrated his intention to annul his marriage to Hynie by taking out a full page notice in Variety Magazine that featured Hynie, James II and himself on vacation at Disney World to announce that he and Hynie were going their separate ways. In addition to the public notice in Variety Magazine, Hynie was even asked to leave an overseas tour after Brown found out that she was married to another person at the time that she married him. According to Hynie, she was returning to the United States at that time to sign papers proving that her previous marriage was indeed dissolved.

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