Family Law
Woman who is 92 adopts her cousin
A 92-year-old Dallas woman has adopted a 76-year-old cousin who has always been like a daughter to her.
A judge in Dallas approved the adoption this week, report the Associated Press, Today and the Dallas Morning News. The older woman, Muriel Clayton, had raised the cousin, Mary Smith, after Smith’s father died in 1950.
Clayton didn’t adopt Smith when she was young because Smith’s mother, who had mental illness, was still alive at the time.
The Dallas Morning News describes Clayton as “a computer whiz, a dedicated bridge player and regular theatergoer.” Clayton tells the publication she decided to adopt because she wanted to “make her legally mine before I go.”
