The music icon was surrounded by family and friends when she died at 9.50am on Thursday local time.
The Detroit museum that hosted Aretha Franklin's public visitations after her death is again holding space for her - this time with an exhibit featuring photographs, videos and the red shoes she wore at the first funeral viewing that drew global attention.
Billed as a "tribute to the Queen of Soul", THINK opens to the public this week at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and runs until January 21, Martin Luther King Jnr Day.
The show is a prelude to what the museum envisions is a larger, long-term exhibit that would debut late next year or in early 2020.
And both could be a proving ground for a permanent museum honouring Franklin and her family.
Red shoes she wore at her first visitation that drew global attention. Photo / AP
"My aunt used to always talk about having a Franklin family museum," Franklin's niece, Sabrina Owens, told The Associated Press.
"That's not on the immediate horizon, but I thought this would be a good start to it."
The first show aims to capture and celebrate Franklin's life in an intimate space that's designed to change and offer surprises over time - much like its subject did.
"This mirrors the way she was - keep on adding things to a collection, giving people something different to look forward to - just goes along with who she was as a person," Owens said.
"She just always wanted to change, keep herself relevant."
In addition to the toffee-apple red shoes, the exhibit includes a replica of the matching red dress she wore at the visitation.
It also features video from performances and appearances.
Visitors are greeted by a large video monitor with three clips playing on a loop, including her scene-stealing turn singing Think in the film The Blues Brothers.
The images and artifacts span her life - among them a framed copy of the first record she cut in her longtime home of Detroit.
Museum officials say the cultural landmark takes great pride in hosting the exhibit, as well as maintaining a connection with Franklin, who died last month at the age of 76.
The museum says that approximately 31,000 people passed through to see her during the August 29-30 visitation period.
Given how recently she died, museum officials said it was important to capture and present some of those elements "of residual grief and love" for the inaugural exhibit.
"THINK" opens to the public Tuesday at the museum that hosted Aretha Franklin's public visitations after her death last month. Photo / AP
"We're trying to continue from the viewing the emotional experience we witnessed - see the emotional connection people had with the Queen and allow people to feel that," said George Hamilton, the Wright's interim chief executive.
For the current and planned future exhibit, the museum is working with the Franklin family on creating something that encompasses her life and its impact.
