More than 100 worshippers gathered Wednesday in a 5 a.m. weekly service normally attended by about a dozen members of New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit to pray for the gravely ill “Queen of Soul” Aretha Franklin, a daughter of the church once led by her father.
Aretha Franklin in 1967.
Robert Smith, the church’s current pastor, says the world-famous singer never forgot her roots in the Motor City, where after years of declining health she is reportedly at home in hospice care.
“When this place is packed, when she walks in the whole atmosphere changes,” Smith, New Bethel’s pastor for the past 36 years, told CBS News. “There’s a new spirit that comes over the place. I would call her the life blood.”
Franklin, 76, was born in Memphis, Tennessee, but moved to Detroit before her fifth birthday when her father, the Rev. C. L. Franklin, became the pastor at New Bethel Baptist Church in 1946.
She started out singing solos at New Bethel before traveling to various churches with her father’s “gospel caravan” preaching tours.
After turning 18, Franklin confided to her father that she aspired to follow Sam Cooke to record pop music. With his blessing, she went on to win 18 Grammy Awards and sold over 75 million records, making her one of the best-selling recording artists of all time.
Her 1967 it single “Respect,” an anthem of women’s empowerment, has been played in nearly 30 feature films. In 1987, she became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Her father, a civil rights leader who worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr., remained at New Bethel Baptist Church until 1979, when he was shot twice at point-blank range during an apparent robbery attempt at his home on Detroit’s West Side. He lay in a coma five years until his death at age 69.
Aretha Franklin canceled a series of concerts due to health reasons in 2017. Her last performance was Nov. 7, 2017, during a 25th anniversary gala for the Elton John AIDS Foundation in New York City.
At a concert in Detroit Monday night, Beyoncé and Jay-Z dedicated their show to Franklin. DJ Khaled, opening for them, paid tribute to Franklin by getting the crowd to sing, “Respect.”
Pastor Smith said he last spoke to Franklin just two months ago.
“Very sharp, very sharp! Very to the point,” Smith told CBS News. “And the last time I talked to her, she just said ‘I’m not to be worried about, and the church is not to be worried about.'”
Smith said the conversation made him feel “happy and sad at the same time, because I knew that meant she’s recognizing that this long struggle might soon be over.”