if you are just joining us it is with
heavy hearts that we share that we have
just learned moments ago that Aretha
Franklin has died from advanced
pancreatic cancer a disease that she has
been dealing with for many months now
she's leaving behind an extremely large
catalog of music the song that you just
heard there remembered by people all
across the world but especially people
here in the city of Detroit including
former Detroit Mayor Denis Archer who's
joining us now on the phone very
heartbreaking news not just for the city
of Detroit
mister mister mayor but it as well as
people all across the world oh well I
cannot imagine anybody doing a better
tribute than you and Rhonda did just now
on behalf of all of us in the city of
Detroit the state of Michigan and
America
well what Aretha Franklin has meant to
so many people across this world that
was her cement to you well I met her for
the first time I think though I listened
dance to a musical I had an event at the
movie imagine a white mayor young was in
office he was very close to Aretha and
her father and whenever he had social
events it was not uncommon for Aretha to
be there and when she was there in
present it was amazing how shy she was
given the stages which she performed and
all of the good that she did I was
somebody sent a tweet out yesterday
about yesterday or day before about how
she indicated she did not care what
amount the bail bond was or there was
four hundred thousand dollars or two
hundred fifty thousand dollars she would
step up for Angela Davison because she
was a black woman she needed to be able
to be a out on bond etc she had one of
the biggest hearts that you could ever
ever imagined and she was a very kind
and respected and respectable person and
when I was privileged to be mayor I
reached out and asked if she would come
and sing it the inauguration and she did
it was breathtaking I think everybody
around the country who watched because
it was carried live on CNN or I should
say on c-span and people tuned in and
the comments that we received for having
her there was just remarkable I can
remember when we were living in the
manuia mansion we would invite members
of the community to come in to celebrate
Christmas and gave Trudy and I on
opportunity to thank everyone who worked
so hard to make Detroit come back and
she was there at the party and somebody
was playing Christmas carols she would
sit down at the piano saying about 20 30
minutes and it just it's just the
magnificent person that she is always
been a consummate professional we were
invited down to the Obama Obama White
House when she was invited to perform
and we were there twice did she just
turned the place out once she was there
with a bunch of outstanding women it was
sort of late but the Divas and Aretha
was just a retha and she just turned it
out at the White House yeah I got here I
can hear the emotion in your voice mayor
Archer certainly an emotion that is
being felt by so many across the city
today in the world hearing this news but
you're giving that perspective of just
how incredibly talent talent
Aretha was but also so giving as well
but I think her music talent if you
could just express a little bit more
about what you've been able to witness
in terms of just how incredibly talented
she was as a musician well into her
later years well I will tell you Aretha
wisdom and just completed an album that
I know it's gonna go off the charts now
as it should and if you've never watched
her perform in person anywhere you had a
sense of her the magnitude of her voice
and how people set and listened and then
of course when the time was right I've
seen a lot of folks including herself
getting up and dancing to something that
she was singing to because that's the
kind of professional wonderful artist
that she was and she always gave back
and she continued to give back since
through her father's Church
and she would have different
performances and inviting in the
community and if anybody was hungry they
were fed that's a wreath of Franklin
that a lot of people did not know but
that's the kind of total person that she
was absolutely we appreciate your your
memories and sharing your perspective
and a little bit about your relationship
with her obviously a very very dark time
now as we're learning about the passing
of a wreath of Franklin at the age of 76
just a quick statement we've got a
family a family adding we certainly
haven't blessed the family adding in one
of the darkest moments of our lives we
are not able to find the appropriate
words to express the pain in our heart
we've lost the matriarch and a rock of
our family we're gonna be hearing more
hopefully a little bit later from some
of her closest closest friends were
caring for her as she was battling
advanced pancreatic cancer