GRAND GOODBYE FOR ARETHA
ACHURCH here swelled with the sound of gospel music on Friday as family, friends and fans of Aretha Franklin bid rousing farewell to the Queen of Soul at a funeral that featured tributes by singer Stevie Wonder and former United States president Bill Clinton.
“Come on, this is a church service, lift your voice!” Bishop Charles Ellis III, the officiant, exhorted the congregation at the Greater Grace Temple, as the choir and orchestra swayed behind him.
The crowd grew louder, its ranks bolstered by the powerful voices of Gladys Knight, Jennifer Hudson, Chaka Khan, Shirley Caesar and Ariana Grande, who came to pay musical tribute to Franklin following her death on Aug 16 at age 76.
Before the golden casket was closed at the top of a service, Franklin’s body could be seen dressed in gold sequins.
More than eight music-filled hours later, Wonder took to the stage to close the ceremony with a performance of his song As, the crowd joining him in its refrain: “I’ll be lovin’ you always.”
“She had the voice of a generation, maybe the voice of a century,” Clinton said, describing himself as a Franklin “groupie” long before he became president. Ending his remarks, Clinton held the microphone to his smartphone and played Franklin’s 1968 hit Think over the church’s speakers.
Civil rights leaders Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton honoured Franklin’s contributions to black empowerment. Sharpton lauded Franklin for providing the soundtrack of the movement, with songs such as her 1967 hit
“She was a black woman in a white man’s world,” Sharpton said, as mourners cheered. “She was rooted in the black church, she was bathed in the black church, and she took the black church downtown and made folks that didn’t know what the Holy Ghost was shout in the middle of a concert.”
Franklin was recalled as both an American institution, who sang at the presidential inaugurations of Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, and as an aunt and grandmother, who took her young relatives shopping or to see Disney on Ice shows.
“Nothing sounded better to me than the way my grandma sings,” Victorie Franklin said.
Smokey Robinson, the Motown singer and a long-time friend, crooned a few lines of his song, Really Gonna Miss You. Grande belted out Natural Woman, while Knight took on You’ll Never Walk Alone. An ensemble performance of Precious Lord so moved the congregation that the officiant told the orchestra to keep vamping as clergy danced on the stage, expanding a programme that was already two hours behind schedule.
The funeral had been billed as closed to the public, but crowds of fans gathered outside, many dressed in their Sunday best.