Aretha Franklin ~ March 25, 1942 - August 16, 2018

We were lucky enough to see her on 4/13/17 in Grand Rapids after an earlier GR concert was cancelled. It was a short performance, just a little over an hour. But the Queen of Soul still had it. At 75 years old, her voice was amazing and immediately recognizable.

 

 And she still played the piano.

The whereabouts of her famous hat from President Obama's 2009 inauguration in still unknown but the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland has a replica.

Stax Museum in Memphis:

We found her star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame on a 2019 trip to California.

In 2021, we drove past her childhood home in Detroit.

And we paid our respects at her final resting place in Woodlawn Cemetery, also in Detroit.

What a great and long career she had. Aretha was the first woman inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame (1987). She bid us all goodbye at the concert, and she'll always have our respect 💗

3 minute excerpt from the Grand Rapids concert