## Facts

- Greta Meador McKellar died on March 29, 1979.
- A five-page document dated August 23, 1977, entirely in McKellar’s handwriting, was offered for probate as her will.
- The document’s opening paragraph included McKellar’s name and stated it was her “last Will and testimony,” but her signature did not appear elsewhere on the instrument.
- On the last page, the document listed three individuals under a clause stating they had “witness[ed]” her “writing of this five page will”: Luciana Brewer, Lucille Jay, and Douglas Watkins.
- In chancery court, the three listed witnesses testified that none of them saw McKellar sign the document and none heard her state that she had signed it.
- The chancery court refused probate, finding the instrument statutorily deficient as an attested will; the proponents appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether a handwritten, multi-page document containing the testator’s name only in its introductory clause satisfies Mississippi’s statutory “signature” requirement for an attested will.
2. Whether attestation is valid when subscribing witnesses neither see the testator sign nor hear the testator acknowledge a signature.

## Decision

- The Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed the chancery court’s decree refusing to admit the document to probate.
- The Court held the instrument was not executed and attested in compliance with Mississippi’s statutory requirements for an attested will.
- The Court relied on (1) the absence of a compliant testator signature and (2) the failure of the witnesses to observe signing or receive an acknowledgment of signature.

## Legal Principles

- An attested will must be signed by the testator (or by another at the testator’s direction and in the testator’s presence) in the manner required by statute.
- Subscribing witnesses must either observe the testator sign the will or hear the testator acknowledge that the signature on the will is the testator’s, and then sign as witnesses in the testator’s presence as required by statute.
- A document being wholly in the testator’s handwriting does not cure noncompliance with statutory execution and attestation requirements when the will is offered as an attested (non-holographic) will.

## Conclusion

Because McKellar did not properly sign the offered instrument and the subscribing witnesses neither saw her sign nor heard her acknowledge a signature, the document failed Mississippi’s statutory execution and attestation requirements for an attested will and was not admissible to probate.


In re Estate of McKellar, 380 So. 2d 1273 (Miss. 1980)