'Queen of Soul' Aretha Franklin dies at 76; hit songs include 'Respect,' 'Think'

Music legend Aretha Franklin died Thursday, according to the Associated Press. She was 76.

The career of the “Queen Of Soul” spanned six decades, from her first recording as a teenage gospel star to her most recent release, 2014's "Aretha Frankling Sings the Great Diva Classics."

Publicist Gwendolyn Quinn tells The Associated Press through a family statement that Franklin passed from advance pancreatic cancer Thursday at 9:50 a.m. at her home in Detroit.

The statement said “Franklin’s official cause of death was due to advance pancreatic cancer of the neuroendocrine type, which was confirmed by Franklin’s oncologist, Dr. Philip Phillips of Karmanos Cancer Institute” in Detroit.

The family added: “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 have lost the matriarch and rock of our family.”

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Last year, Franklin announced her plans to retire after releasing one final album, saying she would perform at "some select things.

Her many classics include “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” “Chain Of Fools,” “I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)”; her own compositions “Think,” “Daydreaming” and “Call Me”; her definitive versions of “Respect” and “I Say A Little Prayer”; and global hits like “Freeway Of Love,” “Jump To It,” “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me),” her worldwide chart-topping duet with George Michael, and “A Rose Is Still A Rose.”

She is also the recipient of the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal Of Freedom, an eighteen time Grammy Award winner – the most recent of which was for Best Gospel Performance for “Never Gonna Break My Faith” with Mary J. Blige in 2008 – a Grammy Lifetime Achievement and Grammy Living Legend awardee. She was No. 1 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of “The Greatest Singers Of All Time.”

Born in Memphis, Tennessee, on March 25, 1942, Franklin moved to Detroit at age 4. She remained loyal to the region, living in the Detroit area for decades, including the Bloomfield Hills house where she moved in the late 1980s.

“My roots are there. The church is there. My family is there,” she told the Free Press in 2011. “I like the camaraderie in Detroit, how we’ll rally behind something that’s really worthy and come to each other’s assistance.”

A biopic starring Jennifer Hudson as Franklin is scheduled to start filming in 2019.