Gonna be a nasty fight.
Legendary country singer David Allan Coe passed away back on April 29, 2026 at the age of 86 in an intensive care unit in Florida following years of health battles.
In the wake of his passing, several of Coe’s children opened up about their relationship with their father, noting that he stopped contacting all of them after a 2013 wreck in which the “You Never Even Called Me By My Name” singer suffered severe injuries.
As his daughter Tanya recalled, she attempted to make contact with her father after the accident. But after initially speaking to his wife Kim, she was never able to make contact with them again:
“When the 2013 wreck happened, I was texting my dad’s phone and Kim’s phone. I was wanting to come to the hospital and trying to get details of where it was. Kim told me not to come to the hospital, that it was too hectic with all the nurses and that they would be checking out soon and that I could come stay with them at the house once they got dad home and I could help take care of him in his recovery.
I was ready and waiting on standby. I never heard from them again. READ THAT AGAIN. I NEVER HEARD FROM THEM AGAIN. My texts and calls went unanswered, unreturned.”
She says that after he contracted COVID in 2021, she was able to track him down and attempted to visit with him, but was once again blocked:
“I texted Kim pleading for her to let me talk to dad and to let me help her take care of him…no response.
I did not abandon my father. I would have loved to have been able to be there for him and take care of him and love on him, especially during his retirement years as that would have been such beautiful & valuable time together.”
And DAC’s son, Tyler Mahan Coe, had a similar experience, maintaining that he always cared about his father even after he stopped speaking to him:
“David Allan Coe was always a difficult person to be close with, a difficult person to care about for several reasons. Nobody who ever knew him would disagree with that statement. But I did always care about him, even after it became clear that he and I were never going to speak to each other again.”
Altogether, David Allan Coe was married 6 times and had 8 children, including daughter Carla with his first wife, Betty; daughter Shelli with his second wife Debbie; four children, including Tyler Mahan Coe, Tanya, Shyanne and Carson, with his fourth wife Jody; son Dustin, whose residence is listed as the same as Coe’s wife, Kimberly; and Josh Pruitt, who Tanya says is their “recently discovered brother sharing the same father.” He also served as father to Debra Ann, who Tanya says isn’t biologically related to the siblings but who DAC raised.
After passing away, David Allan Coe left all of his children out of his will and left his entire estate to his current wife, Kim. But his children made clear that they planned to seek out unpaid child support from his estate.
In a Facebook post from his children, they explained that the legendary singer had “walked away” from family obligations during his life:
“Priority court judgments for long-overdue, unpaid family and child support have already been officially filed by us against our father’s estate. While some people have attacked us for holding him accountable to the family obligations he walked away from during his life, our priority is transparency and family honor. We want to ensure that everyone he owed money to has the exact same opportunity to be made whole.”
And in a filing in the Hamilton County Probate Court in Ohio, Coe’s ex-wife Jody filed a claim against his estate seeking $540,820.72 in unpaid child support, as well as $194,882.10 in unpaid spousal support.
According to documents filed in the case, Coe had been ordered to pay child support back in 1997 when he and Jody divorced. The amount started at $4,000 per month for their four children, and was reduced to $3,200 per month when Tyler Mahan Coe turned 18. The amount further reduced to $2,400 per month once Tanya turned 18, and $1,600 once Shyanne turned 18 years old until Carson reached the age of 18. And he was also to pay $2,000 per month in spousal support for Jody, for the rest of her life, unless she remarried.
Well apparently Coe didn’t pay much (if any) of those obligations, and Jody promptly filed her claim against the estate to finally get the money that she was owed.
But it didn’t take long for the claim to be rejected by Coe’s widow: On August 13, Kimberly Coe, who serves as the executor of the estate, filed a notice with the court that she had rejected both claims from Jody for both unpaid child support and unpaid spousal support.
Of course that’s not necessarily the end of the line for Coe’s ex-wife and their mother: Now that the claim has been rejected, they can either file an objection in probate court, or file a lawsuit against the state to try to collect the money they allege is still owed.
It’s no surprise that the probate process seems like it’s going to be contentious, given the strained relationship Coe had with his children during his life. But it’s always sad to see these situations have to play out in court after someone passes away.
