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Mourners have begun pouring into a museum in\u00a0Detroit\u00a0to pay their respects to the body of the Queen of Soul\u00a0Aretha Franklin.<\/p>\n
The singer\u2019s gold-plated open coffin was placed on display for hundreds of grieving fans at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.<\/p>\n
Fans of the singer travelled from across the length and breadth of the US to see her lying in state, dressed in red from head to high-heeled shoes, legs crossed at the ankles.<\/p>\n
Museum board member Kelly Major Green said the goal was to create a dignified and respectful environment akin to a church, the place where Franklin got her start.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhat we wanted to do is be reflective of the Queen,\u201d Ms Green said. \u201cIt\u2019s beautiful. She\u2019s beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Ms Green said Franklin\u2019s attire and pose communicates both power and comfort, as she did in life.<\/p>\n
The shoes, in particular, show \u201cThe Queen of Soul is a diva to the end,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
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Tammy Gibson, 49, from Chicago said she arrived about 5:30 a.m. She came alone but made fast friends with others who sang and reminisced.<\/p>\n
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Growing up, Ms Gibson said she heard Franklin\u2019s music \u201cplaying all the time\u201d by her parents, who, \u201ctold me to go to bed \u2013 it\u2019s an adult party.\u201d<\/p>\n
Outside the museum, she said: \u201cI know people are sad, but it\u2019s just celebrating \u2013 people dancing and singing her music.\u201d<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/static.standard.co.uk\/s3fs-public\/thumbnails\/image\/2018\/08\/28\/16\/aretha-franklin-mourners-1.jpg\")
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Aretha has been a constant in her life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw the gold-plated casket \u2013 it dawned on me: She\u2019s gone, but her legacy and her music will live on forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aretha Franklin\u2019s body will be on display to the public for two days.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/static.standard.co.uk\/s3fs-public\/thumbnails\/image\/2018\/08\/28\/16\/arethafranklin2808d.jpg\")
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Paula Marie Seniors, an associate professor of Africana studies at Virginia Tech said it was a fitting tribute to the singer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s incredibly significant \u2013 she is being honoured almost like a queen at one of the most important black museums in the United States,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She said the Queen of Soul was \u201ca singer of the universe.\u201d She added that Franklin, who died on August 16 of pancreatic cancer at the age of 76, also was \u201cso unapologetically black \u2013 she was so proud of being a black woman.\u201d<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/static.standard.co.uk\/s3fs-public\/thumbnails\/image\/2018\/08\/28\/16\/arethafranklin2808e.jpg\")
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The museum, which had been the largest black museum in the U.S. until the National Museum of African American History and Culture opened in Washington, D.C., in 2016, also hosted similar viewings for civil rights icon Rosa Parks after her 2005 death. In further symbolic symmetry, Franklin sang at Parks\u2019 funeral, which was held at the same Detroit church as Franklin\u2019s, and the singer will be entombed in the same cemetery as Parks.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/static.standard.co.uk\/s3fs-public\/thumbnails\/image\/2018\/08\/28\/17\/Arethafranklin2808p.jpg?width=1000&height=614&fit=bounds&format=pjpg&auto=webp&quality=70&crop=16:9,offset-y0.5\")
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The women came to their activism from different places and used different techniques, but \u201cin the long run, they were both fighting for the same cause, which is freedom,\u201d Ms Seniors said. She added that if she could attend the viewings, she would bring her 8-year-old daughter, Shakeila, who loves singing along to Aretha Franklin\u2019s videos.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want my daughter to know anything and everything about African-American culture and history,\u201d said Ms Seniors, whose father, Clarence Henry Seniors, was roommates at Morehouse College with Aretha\u2019s brother, Cecil. \u201cI would want my daughter to know of the people like Aretha Franklin \u2013 to be able to listen to that voice \u2026 and hear that there is something special about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013<\/p>\n
Source: standard.co.uk<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mourners have begun pouring into a museum in\u00a0Detroit\u00a0to pay their respects to the body of the Queen of Soul\u00a0Aretha Franklin. The singer\u2019s gold-plated open coffin was placed on display for hundreds of grieving fans at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. Fans of the singer travelled from across the length and breadth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"yoast_head":"\n