Estes v. Estes

MAXWELL, J.,

for the Court:

¶ 1. The Mississippi Legislature has conferred upon widows and widowers a statutory allowance of one year’s support for maintenance of the surviving spouse and children. But to receive this so called “widow’s allowance,” the surviving spouse must show he or she was supported by the decedent. Here, Sarah Young Estes (Young) was widowed when her husband, Joe Howard Estes (Estes), to whom she had only been married for nine months, died without providing for Young in his will. Young — who was seeking a divorce from Estes at the time of his death and had been living apart…