THE Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin died in August 2018 aged 76 from pancreatic cancer.
She was one of the most successful American singers of all time and the first ever woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But what do we know about the late singer’s parents?
Who were Aretha Franklin’s parents?
Legendary soul singer Aretha Franklin was born March 25, 1942 in Memphis, Tennessee.
Her father was American Baptist minister and civil rights activist Clarence LaVaughn Franklin and her mother was gospel singer and pianist Barbara Siggers.
Her parents separated when she was six, and Franklin remained with her father in Detroit.
Clarence LaVaughn Franklin
Born Clarence LaVaughn Walker in Sunflower County, Mississippi, in 1915, he later took the name Franklin after his mother remarried.
Known as the man with the “Million-Dollar Voice”, C.L. Franklin presided over the New Bethel Baptist Church of Detroit, Michigan, and was an influential minister known nationally.
He was renowned for his brilliant sermons, many of which were recorded by Chess Records.
He served as the pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church from 1946 until he was shot and wounded in 1979 in what was believed to be an attempted robbery at his home.
As a young teen, Franklin performed with her father on his gospel programs in major cities throughout the country and was recognized as a vocal prodigy.
At the age 18 of, with her father’s blessing, Franklin switched from religious to secular music.
In the 1950s and 1960s, he became involved in the civil rights movement and worked to end discrimination against black United Auto Workers members in Detroit.
Franklin was a friend and supporter of Martin Luther King Jr. and helped lead the campaigner’s freedom march down Woodward Avenue in Detroit in June 1963.
C.L. Franklin died in 1984 having spent five years in a coma following his 1979 shooting.
Barbara Siggers
Aretha Franklin’s mom Barbara Siggers was born in 1917 in Shelby, Mississippi, and married Clarence LaVaughn Franklin on June 3, 1936.
She was a gifted pianist and a renowned gospel singer who actively participated in the church music where her husband served as pastor.
Barbara already had a child when she married C.L. Franklin, and the couple had a further four children together – Erma, born 1938, Cecil, born 1940, Aretha, born 1942, and Carolyn, born 1944–1988.
In 1948 she moved to Buffalo, New York, after the couple split working in a music store, giving private music lessons, and training to be a nurse’s aide.
The couple never officially divorced and Siggers visited Detroit, Michigan, to see her children while they traveled to Buffalo during summer vacations for stays with her.
Barbara Siggers Franklin died of a heart attack on March 7, 1952 at the age of 34, when Aretha was just ten years old.
