we just trying to keep Ms Retha from keeling over from hypertension and diabetes

Plus Ms Patti don't starve....

Ms Retha is reaching heffa-like proportions, and she also needs a stylist or a true friend to let her know "gurl, that ain't it!"

and she needs to stop letting the mammaries dangle!

DesireeNevermind said:

Aretha Franklin has never had a drug problem, period! She had a drinking problem, now she doesn't drink anymore, and she was addicted to nicotine (as in smoking since she was 14 years of age, and stopped in '92) - besides of men and food, she has no other addictions , not unless being a diva counts LOL

RnBAmbassador said:

but...alchohol and nicotine are by definition drugs. I hear ya tho. You don't really believe she had a baby with here own daddy do you? Also, isn't ReRe a diabetic already? I thought she took meds for that.

Exactly. There's a lot other worse things she could be other than overweight. If food makes her happy, then live it up. You only live once.

BklynBabe said:

Now, you kmow you are wrong for that above pic! I damn near spit my lunch out. Is Glynn Turman still living? I think Aretha lost her sanity a looooong time ago

Yeah he's still alive.

Man her childhood was a mess.

She was born in a shack in Memphis (I guess you can call it a house, from what I saw, it was almost decrepit), her parents divorced when she was six, being a child prodigy probably warped her young mind because she got exposed to a lot of shit in the church world (just because you in the church don't mean you're a saint, Marvin Gaye once said that he saw gospel singers getting into all sorts of sinful activities, we know how his dad was), her father had multiple partners. There's that incest allegation. The teen pregnancies that have been covered up (something about her two eldest children threw me off and maybe this is why Aretha became disillusioned I don't know). Then the abusive marriage to Ted White. The chain smoking, the alcohol, the music business, etc.

Lots of things can make someone real defensive as Aretha turned, I don't think it's because she's nasty, I think she's covering a whole lot of demons.

scriptgirl said:

LOL at the pic, and her sanity as it would be called to most people was probably taken away by adults when she was a mere child. The loss of her mom and the over-adoration for her dad led her down a path of penis hunting, cig smoking, booze and all sorts of things that a young girl should not have been exposed to. What kind of minister would allow his 14 year old daughter to smoke?
I guess the same type that fathered a child by a girl of 13 or 14 in his Memphis church before he moved to Buffalo and then on to Detroit in the Fifties.
The daughter is Carl Ellen Kelly of Seattle, formerly of New Orleans. Aretha's mom Barbara, a gifted singer and pianist according many (including Mahalia Jackson), forgave C.L. Franklin for that indiscretion, and the patter of womanizing continued in Buffalo and Detroit - to the point she couldn't take it anymore according to sources that knew them. So she left and moved to Buffalo where her parents were and took her oldest son (from a relationship prior to C.L.). Her intention was to come back and get Erma, Cecil, Aretha and Carolyn from C.L. the year she died. She and C.L. never divorced, and he did not attend his wife's funeral, although the children were sent there by car.
What a life this iconic woman has had. Sad in so any ways, yet of the kids that C.L. and Barbara had, she is the only one still living. Her half-sister Carl Ellen is also still alive. Her older brother Vaughn, of whom C.L. had adopted when he and Barbara married, passed away in 2004 or so.

Timmy84 said:

They never divorced...Barbara left...

RnBAmbassador said:

****
re: C.L. Franklin


Franklin was born Clarence LaVaughn Walker in Sunflower County, Mississippi, to sharecroppers Rachel (née Pittman) and Willie Walker.[1] Willie Walker abandoned the family when Franklin was four years old, and his name became Franklin when his mother married Henry Franklin in 1920. At age 16, he became a preacher, initially working the Black itinerant preaching "circuit", before settling at New Salem Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, where he remained until May 1944. From there he moved to the pulpit of the Friendship Baptist Church in Buffalo, New York, where he served until June 1946 when he became pastor of the New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan.

Throughout the late 1940s and 1950s his fame grew, and he preached throughout the country while maintaining his pulpit at New Bethel. Known as the man with the "Million Dollar Voice", Franklin was one of the first ministers to place his sermons on records (which continued into the 1970s), and also to broadcast sermons via radio on Sundays. He commanded high fees for his public appearances, and among his most famous sermons were "The Eagle Stirreth Her Nest" and "Dry Bones in the Valley." In addition to his fame as a preacher, Franklin was known for his fine singing voice. He greatly encouraged his daughter Aretha Franklin in her musical endeavors, and during the 1950s took Aretha with him on speaking tours and musical engagements.

In addition to his ministry, in the 1950s and 1960s as he became involved in the civil rights movement, and worked to end discriminatory practices against black United Auto Workers members in Detroit.

Personal life
On October 16, 1934, Franklin married his first wife, Alene Gaines, and though that marriage had certainly ended by 1936, the form of dissolution is unknown. On June 3, 1936, Franklin married Barbara Siggers. They had four children between 1938 and 1944: Erma, Cecil, Aretha, and Carolyn. Barbara had a son by a previous relationship, Vaughn (b. 1934), whom C. L. adopted shortly after the marriage. Vaughn did not know Franklin was not his father until 1951.[2] In 1940, Franklin fathered a daughter, Carl Ellan Kelley (née Jennings), by Mildred Jennings, a 13-year-old in his New Salem Baptist Church congregation.[3]

In 1948, C. L. Franklin and Barbara separated, with Barbara moving with Vaughn to Buffalo, New York, and leaving Franklin with the couple's four other children.[4] According to Franklin's biographer, Professor Nick Salvatore of Cornell University, Barbara made periodic trips to Detroit to visit her children and the children traveled to New York to visit her during summer vacations.[5] C. L. Franklin and Barbara never divorced,[5] and she died of a heart attack in 1952 at age 34.[6] Franklin did not attend her funeral.[6]

C. L. Franklin was a close friend and supporter of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.[7]—who deeply admired C. L.[8]—and was also known for his close relationships with Mahalia Jackson and Clara Ward, two of gospel music's greatest voices. Clara and her singing groups frequently toured with C. L., and he and Clara had a long-term romantic relationship. Mahalia and Clara greatly encouraged his daughter, Aretha, who credits their mentoring and frequent visits to the Franklin home as great influences.

Violent assault and death
Shortly after midnight on June 10, 1979, Franklin was shot twice at point blank range during what was said to be an attempted robbery at his home on Detroit's West Side. He remained in a coma for the next five years. The Franklin children moved him Franklin back to the house six months after the tragedy and installed a 24-hour nurse at the residence to monitor the minister. He remained at the home until the middle of 1984. He died on July 27, 1984 just one week after being placed in Detroit's New Light Nursing Home. His friend, Rev. Jasper Williams Jr., of Salem Baptist Church of Atlanta, Georgia, eulogized him, and Reverend Franklin is entombed at Detroit's historic Woodlawn Cemetery on North Woodward Avenue.

Poor Retha. all that stuff is just sad. sounds like some trials of jobe mess.

Timmy, you mean back when Aretha became famous, no one knew she had those 2 kids as teen and what did you mean when you said something about her first 2 kids threw you off? Why was Aretha's kid put in the asylum in the first place?

scriptgirl said:

To get that reason, one would have to have the absolute truth, and the Frnaklin camp has always been a bit skimpy on that...so according to legend/folklore/rumor/hearsay/scuttlebum:

when said Hollywood type was caught in bed with certain subject - he of whom had introduced mommy dearest to thespian in the first place - mommy took earlier flight back to LA from Detroit and came home and caught legs up in the air in the master bedroom - mommy flipped out, commenced to using a two by four on said actor and told both peeps they had to get up out of her house - said son was disowned and became delusional - thought he was the son of Elvis (said stories made the rag magazines back in the early Eighties), he was hanging on the streets, living on them, had a skirmish with law enforcement at Ralph's Supermarket and he claims was beaten and abused by the police - he spent 30 days in jail and mommy dearest sent Uncle Simuel (Barbara's brother, whom live in LA and other family members from the Siggers side to visit him regularly - mommy couldn't do it because of her fear of flying...it is well documented that he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, even one time allegedly attacked mommy deareast when she went to visit him in the mental home...

RnBAmbassador said:

I hope that never gets made into a movie. I don't think I could bare it.

Damn, Aretha was Precious!

scriptgirl said:

Even worse than Precious.

One thing you have to admit, Aretha is a survivor.

uPtoWnNY said:

tru....dat!!!!!

RnBAmbassador said:

And that other son who burned her Cali home. I think Teddy is her only closest son.

uPtoWnNY said:

Yep.

Some people find her look attractive, maybe she's giving a trill to some guys

NDRU said:

I wouldn't doubt it. Guys love a woman with a lot of meat on her bones. So I'm sure she's getting hit on.

some guys like tig ole bitties on top of rolls and rolls and rolls . go head Retha.


[Edited 1/4/10 15:17pm]

BklynBabe said:

and biscuits

DesireeNevermind said:

Wait whaaaat What WTF WHAT???

Now that's a new one

KidaDynamite said:

When I first heard that story, that was my initial reaction. The press junket was that Glynn didn't wanna move to Detroit to live with Aretha. I think he was active on the California drug scene and he didn't wanna leave and that was the reason Ree Ree cut him loose but that could've been true that Glynn and Clarence had sex.

KidaDynamite said:

You folks are just hearing those Glenn Turman rumors????? Wow!

uPtoWnNY said:

Not me. I heard that story like five years ago when Harley reviewed the book, which she calls the worst bio she ever read on a musician.

uPtoWnNY said:

uhhhh YEAH!