as she sang president obama wiped a tear from his eye. her performance went viral. my country tis of thee she sang for obama and presidents carter and clinton at their inaugurations. the woman who sang for kings and queens revelled in being good at the most important job in the world. i have been a wonderful and very good mother and i am a very good mother. that s what i am most proud of first. a loving mother and a decorated diva. franklin was most of all grateful for her music, her longevity and her audiences throughout her career. i think for me it s the love of the music. loyal fans. aretha franklin, the queen of soul, whose range transcends
we were talking about her, how much she loved new york city and she would come here as often as possible. but she didn t like to fly. so she had to drive. when she came, she would stay here for a while, because, again, she didn t like to fly. so she would come and stay at the hotel and then call some of us to say hello or come on the show or have dinner with friends or what have you. she was also really good friends with one of my friends who i know you know is cameron hall. my heart goes on to her. i know she s suffering and grieving right now. we would meet her and do whatever we needed to do. most of all, we just enjoyed i enjoyed celebrating aretha s birthdays so much. i can t explain how much love was in the room and how special those birthday parties were. i feel honored that i even got
i think i wouldn t really have to say much. i would just, you know by the time i have kids i don t know, they will be beaming it into our heads instead of an ipod or whatever. i would just make sure that they could listen to as much of her music as possible. can i tell you, aretha franklin she loved her regal persona. towards the end, she didn t tell she did not tell people many people what she was dealing with. even some people close to her didn t know everything. some of them were kept in the dark, because, number one, she was private. number two, she loved having that regal her regal persona. if you see her in her beautiful gowns. she loved to come on stage in a fur coat and then fling the fur coat off, because she was the original diva, the epitome of
way that you have with me for this hour. aretha franklin, the queen of soul, has died at the age of 76. the tributes to her life are pouring in. a woman who has done so much for this country, so much for civil rights. a woman who we will always remember and whose music we will always cherish. i m poppy harlow in new york. thank you for being with me. i hand it over now to kate bolduan. this is cnn breaking news. thank you so much. hello, i m kate bolduan. we will continue following this morning s breaking news. the tributes, the praise pouring in as people across the world are now mourning the death and celebrating the extraordinary life, an immortal voice of the a great aretha franklin. i ve been so many places in my in my life in time
darn. i think we lost the connection. hello. reverend, can you hear me still? i can. i m not sure what you heard. i wanted you to share you did just see aretha franklin this week, yesterday, i believe. we had prayer with her twice with members of her family. her sister and brother. her father ordained me. the big march in washington and detroit, which he led. her family was involved in the struggle. so was she. i remember one time, dr. king was under attack. she had a tour to raise money.