Aretha Franklin “Forever and Ever”
Aretha Franklin has left us. She was called the Queen of Soul, but that description does not nearly describe what Aretha could do with her prodigious vocal gifts.
ReRe’s landmark recordings in the 1960s and early ’70s, such as Respect and “(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman” made her the voice of an era and she also commanded a presence in American popular culture for more than half a century.
Aretha was in hospice care at her home in Detroit. This week she received guests who stopped by to say farewell including Stevie Wonder, Jesse Jackson, and former husband Glenn Thurman.
The cause of death was advanced pancreatic cancer, according to Ms. Franklin’s publicist. The diagnosis four years ago did not stop the Queen of Soul, who performed until November 2017.
Ms. Franklin was nominated for 44 Grammy Awards, winning 18, as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and Grammy Living Legend honors.
14 of her singles sold a million or more copies, the most of any female recording artist. A Kennedy Center honoree in 1994, she was the recipient of the National Medal of Arts, in 1999, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in 2005. Aretha was the first woman elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in 1987. In 2008, Aretha Franklin stopped time when she sang at Barack Obama’s first presidential inauguration.
