The body of race car driver and sports car designer Carroll Shelby remains in a Texas morgue because of a dispute between his children and his seventh wife.

After Shelby, 89, died May 10 at Baylor Hospital in Dallas, his children said they wanted the body cremated, the Los Angeles Times reported. His wife, Cleo, 64, said she should be the one to make the decision.

Shelby left an advance directive appointing his oldest son, Michael, to oversee his cremation and to divide the ashes among his children, with one portion to be buried in his parents' grave. But Cleo Shelby says her husband made her his healthcare proxy in 2010.

To add to the confusion, Shelby, who married Cleo in 1997, had filed for divorce in Texas. Dr. Jeffrey Barnard, Dallas County medical examiner, has also said he retains custody of the body because of an unspecified "allegation" that is under investigation.

Shelby took up auto racing at the age of 29 and retired at 37. He later designed the Shelby Cobra, which combined a light chassis -- his first cars contained a discontinued chassis bought from a British car company -- with a big V-8 engine. (c) UPI