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Aretha Franklin's Death

Aretha Franklin

The life and death of Aretha Franklin:

The Queen of Soul. She had a career that spanned more than five decades and belted out a string of hit records. Because of her phenomenal success as a recording star, she was the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But after a long battle with pancreatic cancer, she died at home at the age of 76.

Aretha Louise Franklin was born in Memphis, Tennessee. Her father Clarence Franklin was a preacher originally from Shelby, Mississippi, while her mother - the former Barbara Siggers - was a piano player and vocalist.

Aretha’s parents had three other children together and children from outside their marriage. Her sisters Erma and Carolyn also had careers as professional musicians and performed background on many of Aretha’s recordings.

The Franklin family moved to Buffalo when Aretha was only two years old and a few years later, just before her fifth birthday, the family permanently relocated to Detroit. Clarence became pastor of the New Bethel Baptist Church, but her parents had a stormy relationship and they separated in 1948. Her mom returned to Buffalo with a son from a prior relationship and died in March 1952. Aretha, just shy of 10 years old, was raised by her grandmother and the noted gospel singer Mahalia Jackson.

The very musically inclined Aretha learned how to play piano by ear in those years and began singing in the gospel choir in her father’s church. By his own right, Clarence was a celebrity himself as a preacher and gospel musicians often visited the family home as well as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and singers Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson.

Aretha did not have much formal education, dropping out of Northern High School in Detroit during her sophomore year. When she was 14 she began singing gospel solos in her father’s church and he began managing her bring your own low road. He helped aside her first recording deal with JVB records. When she was 16, Aretha went on tour with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and sang at his 1968 funeral.

Aretha Franklin early in her career

Her early recordings were gospel songs, but she made her first secular album in 1961 and her first hit single, “Won’t be Long” hit the Billboard Hot 100 in 1961. In the early to mid-sixties she was making songs or hitting the R&B charts and was appearing on TV shows like “Shindig” and “Hollywood a Go-Go”.

She was also signed with Columbia Records, but her contract wasn’t renewed and in 1966 he signed on with Atlantic Records. It was there that she really hit the big time with her version of Otis Redding’s “Respect.”

Other major hits followed including “I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You”, “Baby I Love You” and “You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman.”

Aretha Franklin, The Queen Of Soul

An example of Aretha’s softer side came in the 1970s when she had a big hit with “Until You Come Back to Me.”

Aretha also appeared in a movie with John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, as part of their Blues Brother’s series, singing her hit record “Think.”

Aretha lived in New York City in the 1960’s and eventually settled in the Encino area of Los Angeles. She had four sons with different partners, first becoming pregnant at the age of 12.

She also married twice - first two Ted White in 1961 when she was 19. They divorced after accusations of domestic violence in 1969. Aretha married her second husband Glynn Turman and in April 1978, but they divorced in 1984.

Aretha was also plagued with health problems, especially including weight issues. She quit smoking in 1992 and struggled with alcoholism.

Aretha Franklin later in life

She cancelled a series of 2017 concerts because she was ill. And in mid-August 2018 after being reported gravely ill at home near Detroit, she was reported to be under hospice care and died at home of advanced pancreatic cancer.

Singers