DETROIT — Thousands are expected to pour into Detroit’s Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History on Tuesday and Wednesday to pay their final respects to Aretha Franklin. The setting for the public viewings could not be more fitting, according to Paula Marie Seniors, an associate professor of Africana studies at Virginia Tech. “I think it’s incredibly significant — she is being honored almost like a queen at one of the most important black museums in the United States,” said Seniors, who visited the museum several years ago when she was in Detroit doing research. The Queen of Soul, Seniors said, was “a singer of the universe.” Yet she added that Franklin, who died Aug. 16 of pancreatic cancer at the age of 76, also was “so unapologetically black — she was so proud of being a black woman.” To be sure, Franklin didn’t consider herself a catalyst for the women’s movement or on the front lines of the fight for civil rights. But she represented and pushed for both in ways big and small — none, perhaps, more prominently or simultaneously as her mold-breaking take on the Otis Redding song, “Respect.” She later said that with her interpretation — which even Redding acknowledged became the standard — sought to convey a message about the need to respect women, people of color, children and all people. The museum, which had been the largest black museum in the US until the National Museum of African American History and Culture opened in Washington, DC, in 2016, also hosted similar viewings for civil rights icon Rosa Parks after her 2005 death. In further symbolic symmetry, Franklin sang at Parks’ funeral, which was held at the same Detroit church as Franklin’s, and the singer will be entombed in the same cemetery as Parks. The women came to their activism from different places and used different techniques, but “in the long run, they were both fighting for the same cause, which is freedom,” Seniors said. Seniors said if she could attend the viewings, she would bring her 8-year-old daughter, Shakeila, who has sung along with Franklin’s videos. “I want my daughter to know anything and everything about African-American culture and history,” said Seniors, whose father, Clarence Henry Seniors, was roommates at Morehouse College with Franklin’s brother, Cecil. “I would want my daughter to know of the people like Aretha Franklin — to be able to listen to that voice … and hear that there is something special about it.”<doc-sep>The casket of late Aretha Franklin arrives at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History for a viewing on August 28, 2018 in Detroit, Michigan. (CNN) — Sabrina Owens started to consider how to bid her beloved aunt Aretha Franklin farewell before the world even knew the legendary singer was ill. “I tend to be a very organized person,” Owens said. “I started thinking about this back in January, because a bunch of family members were headed out of the country in a few months and I was worried something might happen while everyone was away.” The intensely private Franklin family went public earlier this month with the news that the woman known as “The Queen of Soul” was gravely ill and receiving hospice care. Days later she died after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Franklin was 76. Everything in excellence Owens told CNN a great deal of thought has gone into how to honor her aunt, who, she said, didn’t leave behind any final instructions. Franklin’s family has been intent on doing everything in the excellent manner the singer was known for, her niece said. “We know that she would have wanted nothing but the best,” Owens said. “She gave the best, she expected the best and she would want her fans to have the best.” The result has been a week’s worth of activities in Franklin’s hometown of Detroit meant to pay homage to a woman who helped define the city. Franklin began lying in repose at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit Tuesday. Aretha Franklin fans gather for public viewing in Detroit Her body – clothed in red from head to toe to pay tribute to her honorary membership in the Delta Sigma Theta sorority and surrounded by massive rose floral arrangements – will then be transported for a four-hour viewing Thursday at the parish where her father once pastored, New Bethel Baptist Church. A special concert titled “A People’s Tribute to the Queen” will be held Thursday night at Chene Park Detroit Amphitheater, followed by a star-studded funeral set for Friday at 10 a.m. at Greater Grace Temple in Detroit. Owens said a group of family, friends and supporters dubbed “Aretha’s angels” have worked tirelessly to pull it all together. “I know people think two weeks is a long time to arrange all this, but it’s really not with all that has to be done,” Owens said. “Two weeks seems like a lot of time, but you need that time in order to do this right.” Working together There has been a great deal of coordination between the family, the museum, the funeral home, the church where the funeral will take place and the city of Detroit. George Hamilton, interim director and board member for the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, said they are used to serving the public. After all, more than 300,000 visitors a year come through the museum’s doors to view exhibits such as “And Still We Rise: Our Journey Through African American History and Culture,” a 22,000 square foot exhibition that tells the story of the African-American journey from Africa to present day. But Hamilton said being a part of the home-going activities for a star of Franklin’s magnitude has been quite different. “There are some challenges in hosting an event for an international jewel of a performer like Aretha Franklin,” Hamilton said. “She is, after all, a queen.” Hamilton added that every detail – from additional security to how much water would be needed for the parched crowds standing in the heat – had been accounted for. Most importantly, he said, has been delivering what the family wants. “The position we have taken is honoring the family’s wishes,” Hamilton said. “Their direction has been that they want this to be an opportunity for the public and her fans to offer their respects. We all came together pretty quickly for the Queen to make sure that happened.” O’Neil Swanson II of the Swanson Funeral Home handed out memorial cards Tuesday to those waiting to view Franklin’s body. He talked to CNN about all the work that has gone into making this week run smoothly. “You know the saying ‘Leave no stone unturned?’ That’s exactly what you have to do,” he said. “You have to coordinate with law enforcement to make sure routes are clear for the funeral service. It’s important to contact the clergy that’s going to be involved in the service.” A special hearse transported Aretha Franklin “So a lot of that includes planning,” Swanson added. “And, of course, she was such a unique person who impacted lives, not only in Detroit, but in this country and really all over the world.” Not just a star Owens said she drew inspiration from the various parts of Franklin’s life to aid in her planning. Franklin’s songs and appearances with Martin Luther King Jr. helped to make her one of the faces of the Civil Rights Movement and her niece said she thought of Detroit’s first black mayor Coleman A. Young and civil rights icon Rosa Park’s services when she decided to have Franklin lie in repose. The tribute concert planned for Thursday celebrates her dedication to the industry she inhabited for more than six decades and Owens said the funeral service itself will pay homage to Franklin’s gospel roots and her love of church. “We knew we wanted to have certain gospel artists like The Williams Brothers and Pastor Shirley Caesar,” Owens said. “And there were other people who called us wanting to participate.” Ariana Grande added to Aretha Franklin’s funeral Knowing that they wanted to keep the funeral service private for friends, family and special guests made the family sensitive to providing Franklin’s fans an extended opportunity to say goodbye, Owens explained. And in the midst of all the planning, the family still hasn’t had time to grasp that the matriarch of their family, who loved them fiercely and would often text, is no longer here to share her wisdom. “We really haven’t not had much of an opportunity to have private moments,” Owens said. “I know the world lost the Queen, but her sons lost their mother, her nieces and nephews lost their aunt … we lost a family member and we haven’t had a chance to come together as a group to truly realize that we have lost one who loved us so much and was so loyal to us.” “It’s going to be very difficult after all this is over and people have all gone away,” Owens added. So how are they holding it all together and getting it all done? Owens said it’s all come together with a bit of divine assistance. “We are being guided by the hand of God,” Owens said. “Guided by God and by Aretha Franklin.”<doc-sep>Aretha Franklin’s body has been transported from a Detroit museum that hosted two days of public viewings of the Queen of Soul, the next step in a journey leading up to her funeral on Friday. Workers carefully moved Franklin’s polished bronze casket from the rotunda of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and loaded it in to a 1940 Cadillac LaSalle hearse. Journalists from The Associated Press were allowed to document the casket’s movement Wednesday night after the public viewing concluded. Wednesday’s viewing attracted thousands of fans and mourners and was the last chance for the public to directly pay their respects to the late Queen of Soul.<doc-sep>
The 1940s vehicle brings Aretha Franklin's casket for a public viewing Tuesday at a Detroit museum. (CNN) — The hearse that brought Aretha Franklin’s body to the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit on Tuesday has historical significance. The ivory, two-door 1940 Cadillac LaSalle also transported the body of Franklin’s beloved father, the legendary pastor and civil rights figure the Rev. C.L. Franklin, decades ago. “Ironically around this time,” funeral director O’Neil Swanson II told CNN. “He died in July 1984.” Aretha Franklin died August 16 of pancreatic cancer. The “Queen of Soul” was 76. This week, Franklin’s home city of Detroit has transformed into a massive tribute to the beloved singer. The vehicle that carried Franklin’s body Tuesday also transported civil rights icon Rosa Parks in 2005 and Temptations singer David Ruffin in 1991. Swanson, whose family has been in the funeral services business for 60 years, said they were “honored to be able to help,” as they did when Franklin lost her dad. Crowds gathered to view the singer lying in repose inside the museum. Fans gather to view Aretha Franklin’s body in Detroit The hearse arrived early Tuesday. A group of pallbearers wearing dark suits and white gloves escorted the casket inside the museum. The sight sparked a great deal of emotion. JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP/AFP/Getty Images The late singer's casket arrives Tuesday at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. “I was so stunned when we took the body out of the hearse; people all over the crowd were tearful and saying, ‘I love you Aretha, “’ Swanson said. “They really loved her, and she loved Detroit.” He said Franklin is resting in a 24-karat, gold-plated casket that’s the top of the line. “God didn’t make a better singer. and there isn’t a better casket,” Swanson said. “She deserves the very best.”