Today was the second day of funeral services for music legend Aretha Franklin, who passed away earlier this month. According to Page Six , the singer was clad in a pastel blue dress with matching shoes, a wardrobe change from her red dress and heels she had been wearing on Tuesday. The “Natural Woman” singer’s nails and lips were the same cherry red they were on Tuesday.
Thousands of people lined the block outside of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, where Franklin’s casket was set up for viewing early Wednesday morning. The songstress’s casket was lined in 24-carat gold. Still, dozens of other mourners set up shop down outside the museum, “hawking memorabilia including T-shirts, pins, photographs, and booklets with a CD of the 18-time Grammy winner’s greatest hits.”
According to O’Neil Swanson II, the funeral director at Swanson Funeral Home, the singer is expected to wear a different outfit for her viewing on Thursday at New Bethel Church, and another at her funeral, which will take place at the Greater Grace Temple.
Thanks to the latest in streaming services, fans can now watch the Queen of Soul’s funeral in a live stream on Friday. According to the Rolling Stone , the funeral will be available for viewing both online and on television. The Associated Press will live stream the event, and several local television stations such as WDIV-TV, WJBK-TV, and WXYZ-T in Detroit will broadcast the funeral, which will begin at 10 a.m.
Franklin’s funeral will also be a star-studded affair. Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, Ronald Isley, and Jennifer Hudson are among those who will perform at the funeral. The list of speakers is equally impressive, and will reportedly include “Bill Clinton, Smokey Robinson, actress Cicely Tyson, record mogul Clive Davis, Michigan governor Rick Snyder, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Rev. Jesse Jackson and former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.”
Though former President Barack Obama will be unable to attend — he is speaking at the funeral services of the late Senator John McCain — he penned a letter, which will be read aloud by Reverend Al Sharpton. Former President Bush also sent a letter in his absence, as he will also be speaking at the services of McCain.
As USA Today reports, Franklin performed at Obama’s presidential inauguration in 2009, at ex-president Bill Clinton’s inaugural ceremony in 1993, and at the inauguration of former president Jimmy Carter in 1977.
Franklin was 76 when she passed away from pancreatic cancer on August 16.
