DETROIT, Mich. -- West Michigan and the rest of the world are waking up to the loss of a legend Aretha Franklin.
The "Queen of Soul' passed away Thursday at 76-years-old after a battle with pancreatic cancer. She was a force to be reckoned with in the entertainment world with a career that lasted decades.
Franklin passed away at her Detroit home in her battle with pancreatic cancer. The music legend was born in Tennessee but later moved to Detroit where she started singing at Detroit's New Bethel Baptist Church where her father was a pastor.
A memorial has since been set up outside the church in her honor, bringing thousands of fans from across the world to the Motor City to pay their respects.
Numerous health problems caused her to cancel a concert series last year, per doctor's orders, according to BET. She announced back in 2017 that it would be her last year performing in concert.
Franklin, who has won 18 Grammy awards in her lifetime, was reportedly diagnosed with pancreatic cancer back in 2011, but denies she has the disease, according to BET. She last performed back on November 2 of 2017 for the Elton John AIDS Foundation in New York.
Franklin was scheduled to perform at L.C. Walker Area in Muskegon back in August of 2014 but cancelled the show after the show's promoter “was unable to meet obligations set by Franklin’s management company.”
The Detroit Historical Society reports that Franklin's family lived in Detroit shortly after she was born in 1942. Her father was once the minister at Detroit's New Bethel Baptist Church.
Franklin was the first ever woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and topped Rolling Stone's Greatest Artists of All Time List.
