Tribute to the Queen Of Soul

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Aretha Franklin performs at the swearing-in ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)
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Singer Aretha Franklin, center, arrives at  a reception hosted by President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama in honor of the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors recipients, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012.   (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Singer Aretha Franklin, center, arrives at a reception hosted by President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama in honor of the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors recipients, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Aretha Franklin, has left us.  She was called the Queen of Soul but that does not nearly describe what Aretha could do with whose 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 not only a voice of an era but also 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, she sang at Barack Obama’s first presidential inauguration.

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