Celebrities and dignitaries including Smokey Robinson, Whoopi Goldberg and Stevie Wonder packed into Detroit’s Greater Grace Temple on Friday for the funeral of Franklin, who died aged 76 earlier this month.
Mourners heard of Franklin’s impact on music as well as her work as a prominent figure in the civil rights movement, a role that saw her funding groups as well as performing at rallies and benefit concerts.
Bill Clinton, who was president from 1993 until 2001, led the tributes to “the voice of a generation, maybe the voice of a century”.
The singer performed at his inauguration in 1993 and he described himself and his wife, the former US secretary of state and presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, as groupies of Franklin.
He said Franklin lived “not without fear, but overcoming her fears. She lived with faith, not without failure, but overcoming her failures. She lived with power, not without weaknesses but overcoming her weaknesses.
“The secret of her greatness was she took this massive talent and this perfect culture that raised her and decided to be the composer of her own life song. What a song it turned out to be.”
Mr Clinton recalled the last time he saw Franklin perform, at the Elton John Aids Foundation Gala in New York in November, praising her for hiding her illness from the audience.
He finished his…
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