Oilman H.L. Hunt had three families with 15 children, and the wife from his bigamous marriage sued his heirs four years after his death

H.L. Hunt made one of the largest oil fortunes in America from the East Texas field. He married Lyda Bunker in November 1914 and had seven children with her. In November 1925, while still married to Lyda, he reportedly married Frania Tye of Tampa, Florida, using the name "Franklin Hunt." They had four children. Frania said she discovered in 1934 that he had another wife. A 1941 settlement created trusts for her four children, and she signed a document stating no legal marriage had existed. She then married a Hunt employee, John Lee. Hunt also had four children with Ruth Ray, a secretary in his Shreveport office, all born before he married her in 1957, two years after Lyda died. Ray Lee Hunt, a son of the third family, became executor of the estate and ran the business. In 1978 Frania Tye Lee sued in Shreveport for support of herself and her four children, claiming the 1925 marriage was valid. Three days into the trial she testified about a 1942 offer of money to deny the marriage. During the trial she agreed to a settlement reported at $7.5 million. The settlement left open whether she had ever been married to Hunt. In 1983 her son Hugh Hunt sued Ray Hunt for $7 million, saying the estate breached the settlement by calling the children "natural children." Frania Tye Lee died in 2002.