We all require and want respect, man or woman, black or white. It's our basic human right. Aretha Franklin (American singer and musician)

Goodbye to the Queen of Soul

This past week we lost Aretha Franklin to pancreatic cancer. She was only 76 years old and while that's far too young to lose this major talent she had a remarkable career spanning over 60 years. I can't say I considered myself a real Aretha fan but upon gathering information for this post I was surprised at how much of her music I knew. Ironically, she passed the same day as the king, Elvis Presley 41 years earlier.  Watching some of the tributes on TV showing clips of her interviews, performances, album covers, etc., it brought back memories long forgotten. My parents had the three albums shown here, and I remember playing them repeatedly as a child.
The term 'Diva' gets bandied around far too much these days, and having been given out that label so much it seems to have diluted its validity over the years. Jessye Norman was the original (the central character in the movie Diva was about her), with only a few since her truly deserving the moniker but Aretha could rightfully be described as such.

It's rumored that she wouldn't disclose information about her illness and if that's true, it's really unfortunate. She missed an opportunity to raise awareness about this terrible disease.

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