Aretha Franklin To Be Buried In White Fur, Holding Her Beloved Golden Microphone
Details regarding the burial of the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, have been revealed and she will reportedly look in death as she had in life: glamorous and surrounded by her beloved items.
Radar Online has reported that Franklin is to be buried clutching a gold microphone and dressed in one of her trademark fur coats. The site reported that the singer will be cloaked in a white fur to represent “the purity of her angelic voice.”
“Aretha will probably not be wearing the white fur and have the gold mic with her during the open casket showing, as her family wants to keep the items untouched and spotless for her burial,” a source close to the family allegedly told Radar.
“It’s likely she’ll be secretly cloaked in a white fur and given the microphone to hold after her body has been on display — it’s how she would have liked to have gone out,” the source continued.
The singer’s body will be on display for two days in Detroit. Those wishing to pay their final respects can do so at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit.
Franklin will then be buried at a private ceremony for family and friends in the city’s Woodland Cemetery on August 31, reported Radar. Franklin died on August 16 at the age of 76 after battling pancreatic cancer.
“She fought a good fight,” the singer’s nephew Tim Franklin told Radar. “She went home in peace.”
“To us, we did not know Aretha as the Queen of Soul. To us, she was our aunt. She was a loving aunt, a caring aunt, and a friend. Right now I’m trying to wrap my head around this whole thing. She’ll be sorely missed by the family,” continued Tim Franklin.
“She was a strong woman of faith and strong beliefs. We know where she went,” he concluded. “She didn’t die. She just transitioned to the next life.”
Radar also noted that the singer’s four children and her longtime love Willie Wilkerson are battling for her estimated $80 million fortune. Wilkerson lived with the singer for 30 years until her death.
The superstar was a mother to sons Clarence, 63, Edward, 61, Ted White Jr., 54, and Kecalf Cunningham, 48.
Franklin’s most famous recordings, “Respect,” “Chain of Fools,” “Baby I Love You,” “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” and so many others have become fundamental elements of American popular music.
People Magazine reported that Franklin scored 77 Hot 100 chart entries and earned an astounding 18 Grammys out of 44 nominations.
In 1987, two decades after her first chart-topper, Franklin became the first woman to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and was later named the Greatest Singer of All Time by Rolling Stone Magazine.
