Aretha Franklin, a singer who began her career with gospel music and was later crowned the “Queen of Soul,” died Thursday after battling a range of health issues.
Often simply called “Aretha,” Franklin, 76, got her start in the Detroit church of her pastor father, the Rev. C.L. Franklin. She was first recorded at his New Bethel Baptist Church on the album “Spirituals” at age 14.
“Aretha, like Al Green, is one of the few artists who is universally accepted in the black church,” Bil Carpenter, author of “Uncloudy Days: The Gospel Music Encyclopedia,” told Religion News Service.