In Pics: From being a preacher's daughter to becoming 'Queen of Soul,' Aretha Franklin through the ages
Franklin was 76.
Aretha Franklin, the preacher's daughter whose powerful voice made her the long-reigning "Queen of Soul" died on Thursday at the age of 76 at her home in Detroit.
Franklin, who won 18 Grammys and had some 25 gold records shaped a generation of singers that followed her. Never the one to fit in a box, she 'Aretha-ised' music for her.
"I feel very, very enriched and satisfied with respect to where my career came from and where it is now. I'll be pretty much satisfied, but I'm not going to go anywhere and just sit down and do nothing. That wouldn't be good either," Franklin said last year. But pancreatic cancer got better of her.
Franklin made hit songs like 'Respect" and 'Chain of Fools' and topped the charts in the rock era.
Follow her journey through ages.
Franklin was born March 25, 1942, in Memphis, Tennessee, and raised in Detroit. After recording and touring as a young gospel singer, Franklin's career took a secular turn in 1961. (Reuters)
Franklin sang at the funeral of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, as well as at the presidential inaugurations of Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. (Retuers)
In 1987 she became the first woman voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. (Reuters)
Franklin's heyday extended into the early 1970s as she dominated the music charts with "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)," "Baby, I Love You," "Chain of Fools," "Think," "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," "Do-Right Woman" and "Respect," a cover of a Redding tune that became a song of empowerment during the civil rights era.
"Pop music today is rich with glorious gospel voices and women singers in the mold cast by Aretha," the late Wexler said in his autobiography. "... Aretha became a model for people like Chaka Khan, Natalie Cole, Donna Summer, Whitney Houston... The list of her disciples is long." (AFP)
President George W. Bush presented Franklin the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005. (AFP)