QUEEN OF SOUL A DIVA TO THE END
THE regal presence Aretha Franklin exuded in life was captured at her viewing yesterday, with the late Queen of Soul in a gold-plated casket dressed completely in red, including high-heeled pumps, proving, as one person put it, that she was a “diva to the end”.
As Franklin’s powerful vocals from classic gospel performances were piped through the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer looked as if she was preparing for one more performance.
She wore earrings, red lipstick and red nail polish, and her hair was cut short. Her dress – with its ornamental elements and sheer netting fabric – was reminiscent of an outfit she would wear onstage and “something she would have selected for herself,” her niece, Sabrina Owens, said.
Mourners poured into the museum to pay their final respects to Franklin, who died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 76. The two-day viewing was part of a week of commemorations for the legend, who will be laid to rest on Friday.