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Detroit shows again this week that it knows how to stage big events with style, sass and soul. Sendoff ceremonies for a hometown hero with a royal nickname have a mix of stately and street, swank and sour notes.
On the posh side of Aretha Franklin's homegoing are an eye-gabbing hearse built before her birth and wardrobe changes for her final public appearances.
On the downside are souvenir peddlers, including one with T-shirts that misspell the star's name and another with $10 bootleg CDs.
This 1940 Cadillac LaSalle Funeral Coach is the flagship of Swanson's fleet. (Michael Lucido photo)
Let's start with the swell and swank:
♦ 'Resplendent in repose:' Of course there's a fashion show -- she also was a queen of style, after all. At the Freep, Phoebe Wall Howard has details of Franklin's family-selected outfit at the start of visitations over three days at two sites:
"Aretha Franklin, known for floor-length mink and jewels, is glamorous in life and death. On the first day of a two-day public viewing at Detroit's Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, the Queen of Soul is wearing Christian Louboutin five-inch patent leather pumps that match a tea-length ruby red dress made of lace — with a full tulle skirt and chiffon overlay, said Linda Swanson, executive vice president of Swanson Funeral Home. The dress has beading on the bodice and shoulders, and a boat neck collar with a chiffon bell sleeve altered by Swanson, who is also a seamstress. The music legend is wearing custom-designed beaded earrings." . . .
"She is presented in a way that reflects her life and her legacy," Swanson said. "She is, indeed, resplendent in repose, as a queen should be."
♦ Soror's salute: The red dress symbolizes her membership in Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. She was initiated as an honorary member in 1992 in New York City. "We are honored to have had her as part of our illustrious sisterhood," president and chief executive Beverly E. Smith said Aug. 16, the day she died. "We salute her memory."
♦ More from her closets: A different ensemble will be on view for 12 hours Wednesday, Howard reports, with other styles and accessories coming Thursday afternoon during a four-hour visitation at New Bethel Baptist Church and Friday for the televised funeral at Greater Grace Temple.The funeral home executive describes the re-dressing as "just natural changes in wardrobe that a queen would make."
Freep metro editor Maryann Struman reacts on Facebook: "I've seen a lot, but can't ever recall another funeral with wardrobe changes."
♦ Final ride is a beauty: Talk about how Detroit rolls -- check out the ivory 1940 Cadillac LaSalle Funeral Coach that also carried the Rev. C.L. Franklin (her dad) in 1984 and Rosa Parks in 2005. It's the flagship of Swanson's fleet, a 78-year-old Detroit classic that will carry a 76-year-old classic Detroiter to her family church on Thursday, her funeral the next day and then a family mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery on the west side. (No, it's not a pink Cadillac -- about 100 of which with be outside Greater Grace.)
♦ Indoor and outdoor playlists: "Be aware that throughout the day, Aretha’s upbeat music will play outside [the Wright Museum], but gospel music will play inside, per museum staff and family wishes," says a city government tweet.
On a less solemn note, it's no shock that a celebrity's funeral week draws opportunists. Though the scene outside the Cultural Center isn't carnival-like, there are barkers.
Some bring T-shirts (of varying accuracy, as shown below). Others came from North Carolina with a folding table and homemade CDs with Aretha hits from the pre-streaming era. ("Not sure what you’re gonna play it on," Michigan Chronicle journalist Branden Hunter quips with a 20-track "Love Tribute to the Queen of Soul" going for $10, as shown in his Twitter photo at right.
Another eyebrow-raiser involves an Indianapolis journalist who can't restrain fangirl gushing about how Aretha rides this week.
Allison Carter, an assistant digital director at the IndyStar who is 30 or 31, reacts with a tone that sounds off-key in this context. "I'm reserving it for my funeral now," she tweets in a thread that includes these:
Literally I've just been walking around the newsroom yelling, "HAVE YOU SEEN THIS HEARSE? IT'S SO COOL"
— Allison Carter (@AllisonLCarter) August 28, 2018
I really want to know how much it costs to rent that.
— Allison Carter (@AllisonLCarter) August 28, 2018
Lastly, another member of the Michigan Chronicle's team pounces on this gem:
If you are going to sell T-shirts of Aretha Franklin outside of her church, at least spell her last name correctly. pic.twitter.com/pIUc7GiiCj
— Kory E. Woods (@KoryEWoods) August 27, 2018
Amen to that, brother.
Graphic by the Wright Museum of African American History
