Related Stories As in the movie, Franklin really did meet her first husband, a Detroit wheeler-dealer named Ted White (played by Marlon Wayans), at one of her father’s house parties. The note reads, "His father, Edward Jordan Sr., should never receive or handle any money or property belonging to Clarence or that Clarence receives as he has never made any contribution to his welfare, future or past, monetarily, material, spiritual, etc, except $5 or $10 when he was a child.". Marriage was not considered and the baby was named Clarence. “Then she would eat the chicken and burger, undo the top button of her jeans and blast [the vocals] out.”. A hearing on the matter has been scheduled for June 12. Ree? Newly discovered live performance video footage. Teddy Richards live in Germany (solo-acoustic) In Your Garden. She would later recall that White arrived at her home with Dinah Washington, who got too drunk and had to be carried out at the end of the night. Clarence Franklin was born in 1955, when Aretha Franklin was just 12 years old. He was born in 1931, making him 24 years old when Franklin gave birth to their son Clarence in 1955. Read original story ‘Respect’ Fact Check: How Did Aretha Franklin Get Pregnant as a Preteen? A fourth potential will has also recently been discovered, which again was supposedly written by Franklin. 'Respect' Fact Check: How Did Aretha Franklin Get Pregnant ... - Yahoo She juggled school and traveling on the gospel circuit with her preacher father. After Franklin’s death, the four brothers unanimously approved of her becoming executor, while the 2014 will says Kecalf should fill that role; instead, Owens would receive $200,000, with $50,000 going to Franklin’s now-deceased half-sister, Carl Ellan Kelley. However, the veracity of the will is. Both uses of the word "never" were underlined for emphasis. 679215 Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF. In spring 1967, the singer definitely had an onstage mishap during a Columbus, Ga., performance, breaking her arm. Yet the soul superstar also took the opportunity to take a swipe at his father, Edward Sr. On page 6 of the lengthy 16-page document, she unambigously declared Edward Sr. should have no claim to any stake in her estate. Edward Franklin is the second oldest son of Aretha Franklin, born in 1957 to Franklin and Edward Jordan. Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson stars in “Respect” as the legendary singer as a grown-up, with Audra McDonald as her mother, Barbara Franklin. But interestingly, the 18-year-old already had several recordings to her name by the time she signed with the music behemoth. The 50 Worst Decisions in Music History Soon after the split, Franklin — who was then pregnant with her fourth son, Kecalf, fathered by her road manager Ken Cunningham — was entertaining Charles Cooke, brother of Sam. . 55 Shares By C.C. C.L. Franklin rarely talked about her family and personal life, and for decades, Clarence Franklin's father has been reported to have been a man named Donald Burk, sometimes rendered as Burke, who was a schoolmate of the singer's. Aretha’s mother abandoned the family — which had moved from Memphis to Detroit after the patriarch, pastor C.L. In the will, Franklin emphatically declares that Clarence's father is to receive no money or property: "He has never made any contribution to his welfare, future or past.". The numbing sameness of the art world’s tent-city souks. That May, Jet magazine published a photo of Franklin in a sling at Detroit’s Henry Ford Hospital. In “Respect,” Aretha is seen as a 10-year-old in her Detroit bedroom when an older, unnamed male house guest wanders in, offering to be her “boyfriend.” The scene cuts there, but in a later flashback, it is implied that’s when she was violated and impregnated. You talk about being moved — not only because Aretha is my daughter, Aretha is just a stone singer.”. Tom Holland addresses 'Spider-Man 4' return, says he's 'luckiest kid alive' to play the web-slinger, These are the breakthroughs: Melle Mel and Kurtis Blow talk 50 years of hip-hop, Taylor Swift and Matty Healy reportedly split after whirlwind romance: Everything we know. “I was just about to bust wide open. Several times across all three documents, she writes that her assets should go equally to her three younger sons and outlines detailed instructions for the care of her eldest son, Clarence, who has special needs that have never been publicly disclosed. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Eldest child Clarence, whom Aretha had when she was 12 years old, is the only son not to receive one of her three houses in the will, leaving him out of any money his brothers would gain from their sale. In unreleased footage from Sydney Pollack’s documentary shoot, C.L. 5. Late in the film, Franklin and Wexler have a tense discussion about which songs she should tackle during an upcoming session. But this was Aretha. “But then she got too sick to go,” he said. The financials are a bit murky, as at times they are said to be distributed equally but it is also specified that Clarence’s situation be handled separately. It says Clarence's father is Edward Jordan Sr. — who's also the acknowledged father of another of the singer's sons, Edward, who was born when she was 14. For years, rumors circulated that an adult family friend was responsible — an allegation the family has repeatedly denied. We have felt your love for Aretha and it brings us comfort to know that her legacy will live on. Both newly discovered wills have a few things in common. In the movie, the nickname is even depicted as the inspiration for one of the signature backing vocals in the hit song “Respect”: As Franklin’s sisters help her work out the tune at a piano, they start singing “Ree-Ree-Ree” in tribute to her. As a result, her estate was expected to be divided between her four surviving sons, and be executed by her niece and confidant, Sabrina Owens. Representatives of Aretha Franklin's estate and her family have asked a judge to tell them what to do with three handwritten wills found hidden in her home, one of which includes a big surprise. In a scene set at her California home, a frazzled Aretha is snapping at everyone around her. When Franklin died in August, lawyers reported that she had no will. Jordan was described as a "player" who Franklin once knew in David Ritz's 2014 biography, 'Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin'. What Happens to Scientology? Aretha died from a pancreatic tumor on Aug. 6, 2018. The woman, Gwendolyn Quinn, said that she went into the station and when she came back outside, Franklin had been badly injured. Edward Jr. became interested in music at a young age. Just shy of her 15th birthday, Aretha gave birth to a second son: Eddie, named after his father, Edward Jordan. He did his best to look after her — one night banging on the door of singer Sam Cooke’s hotel room after hearing that his 12-year-old daughter was in there with the 23-year-old soul star. On June 17, a Michigan judge is set to rule on whether the 2014 will is admissible, but Franklin’s heirs will still have to decide many of the next steps in managing her legacy and business matters and agree upon all the vagaries of the document. Today, its different. She originally claimed the father was a schoolmate,. But her commands could be a lot to take. Ritz’s biography does identify Jordan Sr. as a “player” whom Franklin once knew. Though she initially hesitated to release the track, it soon appeared on her seventh Atlantic Records album, alongside another Beatles cover, “Eleanor Rigby.”. But it offers little clarity around one of the most poignant parts of her young life – Franklin’s becoming pregnant as a young girl, whether willingly or otherwise. Music - Singer. She then had two more sons as a result of other relationships. Here, “Respect” is a bit fuzzy: Maron's Wexler, pictured speaking to cameras for a promotional video, affirms Franklin’s status as “Queen of Soul.” The movie doesn’t explicitly give the producer credit for the coronation, but some viewers may be left with that impression. Guests such as Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Art Tatum and Sam Cooke drink, smoke, cuss, and generally raise hell as the little girl performs for their amusement. While that nickname would later become popular for some inside Franklin’s circle, it wasn’t the go-to moniker during her younger life. Now that the legend’s wills have been discovered, it’s up to the courts and her sons to decipher them. Without the aid of an attorney or another representative having drawn this up in an editable digital format, Franklin’s will sometimes reads like stream of consciousness with occasionally illegible notes added in bolder ink. “It changed the trajectory of her life and she thrived there,” said the insider. As Franklin began her concert at the Regal Theater in April of 1967, DJs Pervis “the Blues Man” Spann and E. Rodney Jones appeared onstage to perform a mock “Queen of Soul” coronation, complete with bejeweled crown. Yet her family are now hitting the headlines for a very different reason - they are locked in a bitter war battling over her will, after the discovery of four explosive handwritten notes supposedly dividing her estate between her sons. While not depicted in the film, the title was bestowed on Franklin in early 1967 by Chicago disc jockeys Pervis Spann and E. Rodney Jones. The couple neer married, but Franklin reportedly referred to Jordan as the father of her two sons in her handwritten wills. “Aretha channeled hardship into her singing,” he told The Post. To see all content on The Sun, please use the Site Map. Aretha was a motherf–ker, man.”, Vividseats: Official Ticketing Partner of New York Post, © 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Zoomin’ Biden invokes Aretha Franklin when asked about visiting Ohio train derailment site, Aretha Franklin ‘Natural Woman’ diss was ‘satire,’ trans ‘activists’ now claim, Trans activists want Aretha Franklin song ‘A Natural Woman’ yanked from streaming platforms, Barack Obama’s 2009 presidential inauguration. On the big screen, White is presented as emotionally abusive towards Franklin and frequently violent. Franklin is very, very, very, very, very protective of him,” though he did not explain what that meant. But the real-life incident happened much earlier, when Franklin was tasting her first success with Atlantic. These four tracks, plus Franklin’s version of “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” were also included on the 1956 J-V-B compilation record, Spirituals. Enjoy!!! Password must be at least 8 characters and contain: As part of your account, you’ll receive occasional updates and offers from New York, which you can opt out of anytime. The court-appointed guardian for her eldest son, Clarence, has argued in court that the wills cannot be authenticated. Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com. In recent court docs, he accused Owens of mismanaging Franklin’s estate and taking her Mercedes-Benz for personal use, which Owens denied; she claims that Kecalf asked permission for his son to use the car. Franklin specifically willed her gold records and CDs, awards, cars, and piano to her children as well as her “papers,” which she wanted to see donated to a college music department. Not according to one of the purported wills, dated June 21, 2010. It’s unclear why Franklin left Clarence out of any financial gains from the homes, but it is apparent why she didn’t leave him a house — because of unspecified special needs, the 64-year-old lives in a Detroit group home. It had to be 90 degrees. Per the Times, under Michigan law, “the family could bypass questions of the validity of the wills if all heirs can come to an agreement.” In the interim, a lack of control over the estate has put its business interests on hold: The Times reports that an MGM Aretha Franklin biopic starring Jennifer Hudson will move forward without the estate’s permission, claiming to have secured the necessary rights and Franklin’s blessing while she was alive, as will a NatGeo season of Genius dedicated to the singer. C.L. Dave Grohl and Foo Fighters troll Westboro Baptist Church ... 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As Franklin ascends to superstardom in Respect, Atlantic Records producer Jerry Wexler stands before a phalanx of news cameras and declares her “the Queen of Soul.” The scene implies that it was he who coined the iconic honorific, but the title actually came from a pair of Chicago disc jockeys. Franklin’s traveling ministry as a “sex circus.”) Later, during another party, Franklin is awoken by a grown man who enters her room and offers to be her “boyfriend.” Through a series of flashbacks, it’s implied that Franklin was raped, resulting in a pregnancy. Circumstances were further muddied when a will, purportedly handwritten by Franklin, surfaced after her death. Fact-Checking the Queen Biopic, 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. Cuba Gooding Jr. In his book Respect, David Ritz details one of Franklin’s early shows in Detroit when Washington paid her a visit backstage and criticized her messy dressing room. "We have lost the matriarch and rock of our family. 'Respect' fact check: What did Aretha Franklin biopic get wrong? All rights reserved. Kecalf is still arguing that the 2014 will be recognized and has challenged Franklin’s niece, Sabrina Owens, as executor of the estate, requesting that he be appointed executor instead. It appears that Franklin’s estate won’t be nearly as complicated as the mess Prince left behind (with all of his sibling drama and extremely convoluted finances, which included hefty tax bills and a trove of unreleased recordings), but there are still plenty of questions.