Aretha Franklin's Last Days: 7 Painful Details
A legal battle over the singer’s fortune revealed.
Aretha Franklin, one of the most legendary singers in the world, died in 2018 from pancreatic cancer at the age of 76. She left behind a legacy of music, and also a legal battle over her $18 million estate, which included four homes, four cars – a Mercedes-Benz, two Cadillacs and a Thunderbird convertible – $42,000 in furs and $73,000 in jewellery, as well as future royalties on her recordings. This week, the four-year-long battle over the Motown singer's money was finally resolved by a Michigan court. The legal drama also shed some light on what her final years and days were like.
After spending her entire life performing, Franklin made her last appearance in November 2017. She sang at a benefit for Elton John's Aids Foundation in New York, crooning a haunting 11-minute rendition of Bridge Over Troubled Water.
Aretha, who lived in Detroit her entire life, spent her final days in a luxury condo at the Riverfront Towers in Detroit. She was visited by her many friends, including Jesse Jackson and Stevie Wonder.
According to friends, Aretha was "an obsessive texter." However, she got her nails done frequently and right after, she would often make typos, so friends could tell she'd recently gotten a manicure by the missing letters.
For almost a year following her death, Aretha's family didn't think she left behind a will. However, in May 2019, two separate handwritten documents were found in her Detroit home. One of them was locked in a cabinet and the other, stuffed underneath her couch cushions. She signed all the pages found in the cabinet. The one found in the couch was a spiral notebook dated 2014, and was signed off with the name "Franklin" and a smiley face.
While some were perplexed why the singer would leave her will underneath her couch cushions, her son, Kecalf, told the court her wasn't surrprised. When asked where the singer would read her post, sign documents and even sleep, Franklin repeatedly responded "on the couch."
The notebook found in the couch was declared valid as her last will. All four sons benefited from the will. However, her second oldest and youngest children, Edward and Kecalf Franklin, were thought to be the winners. Kecalf received his mother's principal home.
According to Aretha's sister Erma, her sister channeled "more emotion than one human being could bear." However, her suffering was a gift to the world.
