Aretha Franklin’s funeral will give fans a chance to say goodbye along with family and friends.
Franklin’s longtime publicist, Gwendolyn Quinn, told Us Weekly on Friday, August 17, that a public viewing will take place on Tuesday, August 28, and Wednesday, August 29, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit.
A private funeral service will occur on Friday, August 31, at 10 a.m. at Greater Grace Temple in Detroit. This service will be attended only by family and friends.
Franklin will be entombed at Woodlawn Cemetery in Detroit, where other members of her family — including her father, brother, sisters and nephew — were laid to rest.
The Queen of Soul died at age 76 at her home in Detroit on Thursday, August 16. Her cause of death was reported as pancreatic cancer, per her death certificate, on Friday. The family previously revealed in a statement after she died that the songstress suffered from “advance pancreatic cancer of the neuroendocrine type.”
“In one of the darkest moments of our lives, we are not able to find the appropriate words to express the pain in our heart,” the family’s statement read. “We have lost the matriarch and rock of our family. The love she had for her children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews and cousins knew no bounds.”
In the time since her death, Ariana Grande and Robin Thicke have honored Franklin with renditions of her songs, while Barack and Michelle Obama, Elton John, Barbra Streisand and others have shared how the vocalist and her music impacted their lives.
