by Bailey White
Staff Writer
It’s been 29 years since their father disappeared without a trace, and now the sons of local songwriter Joseph Francis Royster are hoping that even though the body of their father was never recovered they can put the case to rest.
Timothy R. Royster and Joseph Francis Royster Jr. will be in Jacksonville Friday to go before a judge who will most likely sign a death certificate. Once Royster has been declared dead, royalties collected on songs that he wrote during his career will transferred to his sons.
Eddie Booth Jr., an attorney with Spohrer Wilner, is handling the case. He believes that after such a long time with no word from Royster, it is safe to declare him deceased.
“One of the most compelling pieces of evidence that Mr. Royster is dead is the fact that in almost 30 years he hasn’t surfaced to collect his record royalties,” said Booth.
According to Booth, the songs have collected a sufficient amount of royalties through the years.
“I don’t do a lot of entertainment law, but I think the most important thing you can do in the record business is to write a song,” said Booth. “It can be a large sum.”
Royster’s music was the rock and roll of the 1950s and 1960s. He collaborated with other musicians in the area to produce a number of songs and managed to make a living off of his songwriting. One song, “New Orleans,” was No. 6 on the U.S. charts for 14 weeks in 1960 and was featured in the “Blues Brothers 2000” movie and soundtrack.
Another song, “Quarter to Three,” was No. 1 on the charts for 15 weeks in 1961. Bruce Springsteen sometimes performs it as part of his live act, and it was featured on a recently re-released CD by Gary US Bonds.
Royster was born in North Carolina in 1935. He attended college at Wake Forest University and married Lu Faye Royster in 1957. The couple had two children and were divorced in 1970.
Booth has a collection of papers that document Royster’s last few years of known existence. He has the divorce decree from 1970, when Joseph Jr. was 12 and his brother Timothy was eight. In 1971 he applied to renew his driver’s license in Florida. His address at the time was in the Ribault area. Royster filed his last Federal Income Tax Return in 1972, listing his two sons as his only heirs.
Royster was 39 in February 1973, when he left Jacksonville for a trip to Nevada. The last piece of evidence in Booth’s paper trail is a notice sent to Royster’s mother notifying him of a returned check that he wrote to the Mint Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The date of the check was Feb. 18, 1973.
Though many attempts were made to find Royster at the time of his disappearance, authorities turned up nothing. Royster’s mother, Mary Ann Neathery Royster, sent correspondence to her missing son through The Salvation Army as late as 1982, almost 10 years after his disappearance.
“Been expecting you to call; thought maybe you had forgotten the phone number,” she wrote.
After his disappearance, monthly checks went to Royster’s mother, but she passed away in August 2000. Since then, BMI, the record company that collects the royalties on Royster’s songs, has put the money in escrow, where it will stay until one of his sons can produce proof of his death.
Booth isn’t expecting any delays in the process to have Royster officially declared deceased; Florida Law requires that a person be missing for at least five years. Still, the process can be lengthy. Once the judge has signed the paperwork, Booth will take it to the Bureau of Vital Statistics to get the death certificate. Then he will file a probate action. Royster died without a will so his beneficiaries will be his lineal heirs — in this case his sons — who will be able to pass royalty rights to their children. The entire process could take another 4-5 months.
“I think they are ready to put the affair behind them,” said Booth, who has handled two similar cases. “It’s been a really long time.”