“Elgin was THE superstar of his era — his many accolades speak to that,” Jeanie Buss said in a statement when Elgin Baylor died in March 2021. And the resume is hard to argue with: 14 seasons in Lakers purple and gold and eight trips to the NBA Finals. He’d even been enshrined in the Hall of Fame in 1977, had his No. 22 retired by the Lakers in 1983, and was honored with a bronze statue outside the arena in 2018. But there was another side to Baylor’s life, a private family matter, that stayed largely outside the public record. Now, it’s in court.

“According to court docs obtained by TMZ, Elgin’s daughter, Alison Clayton, filed a petition claiming her stepmom, Elaine Baylor, is withholding information about her inheritance.Elgin died on March 22, 2021, at 86 … and Alison said her stepmom, who was with Elgin at the time, didn’t let Alison or her brother know their dad had died, and has since refused to reveal any information about the estate.”

Baylor married Ruby Saunder in June 1958, and the couple had two children, Alan and Alison, before divorcing in 1974. Three years later, Baylor married Elaine, a New Orleans native, and they remained together until his death. They had one daughter, Krystal. Now, Alison has filed a petition accusing her stepmother of withholding information about her inheritance from Baylor’s estate.

TMZ further reported that Alison moved to the East Coast in 1991 but said she stayed in touch with her father until around 2018. According to her claims, Elaine knew about their relationship for years but still chose to leave her out of matters surrounding the estate. Elaine has not publicly responded to the allegations.

And while she faces allegations in the current estate dispute, her work to extend her husband’s legacy had previously taken a very different direction. Baylor spent one season at the College of Idaho before transferring to Seattle University, where he helped lead the team to the NCAA championship game. Still, his connection to Idaho never faded.

In 2023, the College of Idaho announced the formation of the Elgin & Elaine Baylor Opportunity Fund. The fund aims to provide full-tuition scholarships to 44 students with financial need from underrepresented and under-resourced populations. It was designed to give other students the kind of opportunity Baylor received decades earlier.

Baylor attended the College of Idaho on an athletic scholarship in 1954, when relatively few college basketball programs in the country were integrated. That opportunity helped set him on the path to his Hall of Fame NBA career with the Lakers.

“He would be pleased without words,” Elaine said of the scholarship initiative. For her, it offered a way to carry Baylor’s impact forward.

Elaine grew up in New Orleans in a Baptist household, as she once recalled in an interview, and comes from a working-class family that relied on scholarships and faith.

“I was born in New Orleans and grew up in the Baptist church,” Elaine said, per the Los Angeles Sentinel. “[I come from] a working-class family that went to school on scholarships and everything was due to prayer. I had God’s favor. That’s been my foundation and a part of my life.”

Those beliefs remained part of her life as she built a family with the Lakers legend. After his death, Elaine remembered her husband as more than a basketball icon. “Elgin was the love of my life and my best friend,” she said, while also praising his courage, dignity and generosity toward fans. She and Krystal were by Baylor’s side during his final days.