Detroit mourns Aretha
HOMETOWN: DOWN-TO-EARTH FRANKLIN ‘MADE THE BEST OXTAIL SOUP’
‘I know she was rich but she never let it out that she was rich.’
When Aretha Franklin’s death was announced over the PA system, glass maker Maurice Black says grief was so great at his Detroit auto plant that supervisors briefly shut the line.
“The look on everybody’s face. It was just shocking,” the 53-yearold said outside Detroit’s New Bethel Baptist Church, where the music icon kicked off her career singing gospel as a child.
“Hearts were heavy, people were trying to get themselves together, so the supervisor said go to the bathroom,” he said.
“Too many people were going to the bathroom, so they officially shut it down...”
What made it all so raw was many still remembered how Franklin, pictured, had only visited the factory only four to six years earlier. “When she came in everybody was hollering ‘Aretha! Aretha! Queen of Soul! Queen of Soul!’” Black said.
He grew up in the neighbourhood around the church, where he would eat Franklin’s lavish meals she provided for the community and the homeless on Thanksgiving and Christmas. “She made the best oxtail soup. It was to die for,” he recalled.
There is pride in the neighbourhood that the legendary singer shunned the celebrity trappings of cities such as Los Angeles to stay close to her roots.
Those who came to pay their respects, braving rain to lay bouquets, honoured her down-toearth personality.
“I know she was rich but she never let it out that she was rich,” said Reverend Charles Turner.
“She always gave you respect. She let you hug her and she always had a smile on her face.”
“She didn’t care about how much money she had,” Black said. “She said ‘look we’re giving a gospel show this weekend. Now I don’t know who’s coming, but I’m singing.’
“She had you jumping for joy, crying,” he said.