Kuralt Mistress Gets Mont. Property

HELENA, Mont. (AP) â€” The longtime secret mistress of late CBS correspondent Charles Kuralt has won her legal battle for ownership of his Montana fishing retreat. <br><br>The Montana Supreme Court on

Thursday, December 28th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

HELENA, Mont. (AP) â€” The longtime secret mistress of late CBS correspondent Charles Kuralt has won her legal battle for ownership of his Montana fishing retreat.

The Montana Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously upheld a lower court's ruling that the property belongs to Patricia Shannon, and not Kuralt's daughters.

A letter Kuralt wrote to Shannon two weeks before he died in 1997 was a valid, informal will expressing his wish that she have the 90 acres along the Big Hole River, the court said. The property is worth about $600,000.

Kuralt and Shannon had a ``close personal relationship'' for 29 years and the newsman was the major financial supporter of Shannon and her children during that time, the court said.

Kuralt's daughters had argued that the June 18, 1997, letter to Shannon was not a legal document.

The fight over the property began after Kuralt died at age 62 of complications from lupus.

Shannon said she met Kuralt, the traveling correspondent known for his folksy reports about quirky Americana, in 1968.

Kuralt's widow did not learn of the lengthy affair until her husband's funeral.