Down but Never Out

On July 27, 1984, Reverend Franklin passed away. He never awoke from the coma after being shot. Thousands of people stood outside New Bethel Baptist Church during his funeral. Reverend Jesse Jackson, an old friend of the Franklins, spoke at the service. “C.L. Franklin was not just rare but unique. He was born in poverty, but poverty could not stop him. His flower did blossom.”

Aretha's father had touched the lives of so many people in a positive way. Aretha's faith helped her through her grief. As she told Ebony magazine many years earlier, “I feel a real kinship with God, and that's what's helped me out of the problems I've faced.”