Music
Aretha Franklin
1942–2018 · singer, songwriter, pianist
The “Queen of Soul” grew up singing gospel in her father's Detroit church, spent most of her life in and around the city and is entombed at Woodlawn Cemetery.
- Born
Memphis, Tennessee- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 76- Birth name
- Aretha Louise Franklin
- Also known as
- Queen of Soul
- Detroit years
- 1946–1960s, 1982–2018
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Aretha Franklin arrived in Detroit as a small child when her father, the Rev. C. L. Franklin, became pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church, and the city shaped her for the rest of her life. She grew up in the family home on LaSalle Boulevard, where gospel stars and jazz greats came to visit, and she sang in her father's church, where her first gospel album was recorded in 1956. She attended Northern High School only briefly before music took over. Fame took her to New York and Los Angeles, but in 1982 she came back to the Detroit area to help care for her father, who had been shot during a burglary at his home, and she stayed. She sang the national anthem at Super Bowl XL at Ford Field in 2006 and again before a Lions game there in 2016. After her death in 2018 she lay in repose at the Charles H. Wright Museum, her funeral filled Greater Grace Temple, and she was entombed at Woodlawn Cemetery.
Highlights
- Won 18 Grammy Awards; signature hit “Respect” (1967)
- First woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1987)
- Michigan declared her voice a state “natural resource” in 1985
- Presidential Medal of Freedom (2005)
- Chene Park became the Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre in her honor (2018)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 11
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Performed here · 1946–2018
New Bethel Baptist Church
Her father's church, where she sang gospel as a child and recorded her first album in 1956; she also lay in state here in 2018.
Lived here · late 1940s–1960
Franklin family home (Aretha Franklin's childhood home)
Closed
The 1916 house in the Virginia Park area where she lived from about age five to 18; Nat King Cole and Martin Luther King Jr. visited. Private residence, view from the street only.
Studied here · 1950s
Northern High School (historic building)
Closed
She attended the North End high school for about a year before leaving to sing. Since 2023 the building houses the Frederick Douglass Academy for Young Men.
Performed here · 2006, 2016
Ford Field
She sang the national anthem at Super Bowl XL in 2006 and a famously long version before the Lions' Thanksgiving game in 2016.
Performed here · 2013
MotorCity Casino Hotel
Venue of her 2013 Christmas concert, part of her return to live performing after illness.
Related place · 2018
Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
Thousands filed past her open casket here during the public viewing before her funeral in August 2018.
Related place · 2018
Greater Grace Temple
Site of her eight-hour televised funeral on August 31, 2018.
Buried here · 2018
Woodlawn Cemetery
She is entombed in the cemetery's main mausoleum, near her father and sisters; Rosa Parks also rests here.
Memorial · 2018–
Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre
The riverfront amphitheater was renamed for her by the City Council in September 2018.
Memorial · 2017–
Aretha Franklin Way
A stretch of Madison Street downtown was given her name on June 8, 2017.
Memorial · 2021–
Aretha Franklin Post Office Building
East side post office named in her honor in 2021.