Former U.S. President Bill Clinton spoke Friday to those mourning the loss of soul singer Aretha Franklin at an hours-long extravaganza of a funeral service in her native Detroit, Michigan.
“She lived with courage. Not without fear, but overcoming her fears,” Clinton said of Franklin, who died August 16 of pancreatic cancer at age 78. “She lived with faith. Not without failure, but overcoming her failures. She lived with power. Not without weakness, but overcoming her weaknesses.”
Clinton spoke of her generosity of spirit and her willingness to acknowledge fellow musicians and performers who had not achieved her legendary fame. He also made sure to note: “She worked her can off.”
Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, actress Whoopi Goldberg and a host of musicians were also among those at Detroit’s Greater Grace Temple for a tribute and memorial to Franklin that was expected to last six hours or more.
Franklin was dressed in different outfits during several days of public viewings, and her funeral brought a fourth costume change. While the week has been filled with tribute concerts and other high-profile celebrations of the singer and her remarkable life, funeral organizers said Friday’s funeral would be a religious service, not entertainment.
Bishop Charles Ellis III, pastor of Greater Grace Temple, told The Associated Press before the service: “It is my goal and my aim to ensure that people leave here with some kind of spiritual awakening. … This is not a concert; this is not a show; this is not an awards production. This is a real life that has been lived.”
Franklin continued to receive a royal goodbye. She was to be buried in a bronze casket plated with 24-karat gold. Franklin’s name and the title “Queen of Soul” were embroidered into the champagne-colored velvet lining the interior.
Franklin’s body was brought to the church in a white hearse that carried the body of her father, the Reverend C.L. Franklin, in 1991 and civil rights leader Rosa Parks in 2005; and like them, she will be buried in Detroit’s Woodlawn Cemetery.
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