Aretha, however, is still undecided about parting with her Luke Song-designed hat. “I am considering it. It would be hard to part with my chapeau since it was such a crowning moment in history,” says the Queen of Soul.
A spokeswoman for Aretha Franklin says the Queen of Soul did more than serenade Barack Obama with “My Country ’Tis of Thee” at his inauguration. Advertisement
She also came bearing gifts.
Franklin spokeswoman Gwendolyn Quinn says Franklin gave the president a collection of 17 sermons by her late father, prominent Detroit minister the Rev. C.L. Franklin.
Quinn says Franklin also gave Obama a biography of her father and a Bible “engraved with a personal message.”
Aretha Franklin and Dr. Rick Warren, an author and leader of the Saddleback Church, are among the select group of people who will participate in Barack Obama’s inaugural swearing-in ceremony on Jan. 20.
Mr. Obama has also chosen Elizabeth Alexander, an African-American poet, and some of the world’s premier musicians, including Itzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma, to share the podium with him.
In honoring the civil rights movement, Mr. Obama has asked the Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, dean of the civil rights movement and co-founder with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, to deliver the benediction. [...]
Justice John Paul Stevens will then administer the oath of office to Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden, Jr., to be followed by a musical selection by John Williams, the composer and arranger whose music was heard at Mr. Obama’s victory party on election night in Grant Park. [...]
The oath of office will then be administered to President-elect Barack H. Obama by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr.
For the first time in 8 years, we can have a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T for our president, and say the words "commander in chief" without laughing... or cringing.
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