Lawyer: Ted Williams Wanted to Be Cremated

INVERNESS, Fla. – Ted Williams asked in his will that he be cremated, not frozen, and wanted his ashes scattered in the Florida Keys where he loved to fish, a lawyer for the slugger's daughter said Tuesday.

A family feud has broken out over Williams' body, with his daughter accusing her half-brother of having the remains frozen at a cryonics lab in Arizona so that the baseball star could someday be brought back to life and take the field again.

Williams, the last major leaguer to bat over .400 in a season, died Friday in Florida at age 83.

John Heer, an attorney for Barbara Joyce Williams Ferrell, said that he had not read Williams' will as of early Tuesday but that attorneys for the estate had told him of the former Boston Red Sox player's wishes.

"All versions were consistent that he wanted to be cremated and his ashes would have been spread over the Florida Keys," Heer said from his Cleveland office.

Heer said attorneys for the estate planned to file the will in a Florida court. Those attorneys did not immediately return a call to their Orlando office, and no will was filed by Tuesday evening.

Heer said he planned to ask the courts to referee the battle over Williams' remains.

No one answered the phone at John Henry Williams' office in Citrus County, and a business associate said Monday he was out of town.

Ferrell's husband, Frederick "Mark" Ferrell, said Tuesday that Williams' son first proposed freezing Williams' body more than a year ago.

Mark Ferrell said in Tuesday's Boston Herald that the younger Williams wanted the procedure for his father "so he can play baseball in a hundred years."

Contrary to some published reports, Mark Ferrell told The Associated Press that his wife was not estranged from her father. He said she was estranged from her half-brother over what to do about their father's body.

"He proposed the cryonics thing to my wife, and she went nuts and said, `You're not going to do it to my dad,"' Mark Ferrell said.