Aretha Franklin gets emotional while honored with Detroit street in her name

On Thursday, Aretha Franklin was honored in Detroit with a street named in her honor.

On Thursday, Aretha Franklin was honored in Detroit with a street named in her honor.

A crowd gathered at the Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts for the reveal of the new sign for “Aretha Franklin Way,” and Franklin admitted that she was a little emotional.

“I knew I would get weepy when I got down here,” she told the gathered crowd before she went on to thank the city for the honor.

“Every time I come down here, I want to see it,” she said. “I’m gonna dance down it. Thank you.”

Franklin moved to Detroit in 1946 from Memphis, Tennessee, when her father became pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church, and since that time, Detroit has always had her love and her heart.

“Detroit has been with me ever since,” she said. “They were with me when no one else knew who I was and I’ve been with them every step of the way.”

The declaration renaming the street in her honor also explained the significance of the spot, on the intersection of Madison and Brush, site of the Music Hall. Franklin had performed at the Music Hall many times, and it was also the site of Easter services when her father’s church went over capacity.

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