Aretha Franklin, 'Queen of Soul,' Has Passed Away At 76

 

Aretha Franklin, the "Queen of Soul" whose recordings of such classics as "Respect" and "Chain of Fools" made her the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, died Thursday of advanced pancreatic cancer. She was 76.

Franklin died at her Detroit home at at 9:50 a.m.

"In one of the darkest moments of our lives, we are not able to find the appropriate words to express the pain in our heart," the singer's family said in a statement to the Associated Press. "We have lost the matriarch and rock of our family. The love she had for her children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and cousins knew no bounds."

Franklin had dealt with undisclosed health issues that had kept her off stage in recent months. In March of 2018, she canceled a pair of scheduled concerts in due to what her management described as doctor’s orders. In subsequent months, she canceled scheduled performances in Boston and Toronto with management again saying that her doctors had told her to “stay off the road and rest completely.”

At one of her last public performances, in June 2017, she closed out a free concert in her hometown of Detroit with the message: “God bless you, God keep you, keep me in your prayers.”

Born in Memphis but raised in Detroit, Franklin began singing in church as a youngster – her father was a Baptist minister – and during her lifetime crossed multiple music lines. Known for her soul recordings, she also shone at R&B, jazz, blues and gospel music and was a songwriter and pianist as well as a singer.

Over the course of her career, Franklin received multiple honors, including The National Medal of Arts and The Presidential Medal of Freedom.

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May she rest in peace and comfort be with her close friends and family during this difficult time.  This is definitely a tough loss. Before I close out this blog post I am going to dedicate this song to my mother Cecilia, who absolutely loved Aretha Franklin song, A rose is still a rose. She too passed away from Cancer.