Celebrating Aretha Franklin's birthday
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Left photo: Producer Narada Michael Walden, Aretha Franklin and Whitney Houston during the recording of "It Isn't, It Wasn't, It Ain't Never Gonna Be" in 1989 in Detroit. Right photo: Franklin performs during a 2011 Labor Day event in Detroit before former President Obama's Labor Day address. Photos: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images and Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
The legendary Queen of Soul was born on this day in 1942.
- To commemorate, we're bringing some facts you may not know about the "voice of Detroit," who died in 2018.
🇺🇸 Franklin sang at three presidents' inaugurations, as well as the funeral of Martin Luther King Jr., according to the Detroit Historical Society.
✈️ She developed an intense fear of flying after a bout of high turbulence in the 1980s and even took a class to try to overcome it, per Biography.com. She took buses instead of planes.
🍬 Franklin hung around with friends in the North End growing up in the 1950s, going to the Echo Theatre and a sweets shop at Oakland and Belmont, according to the Detroit News.
🎤 She gave many an inspiring quote, including when she told Elle magazine: "In terms of helping people understand and know each other a little better, music is universal — universal and transporting."
