Motor City heartbroken, yet proud of Aretha
(Artdaily.org)

When Aretha Franklin`s death was announced over the PA system, glass maker Maurice Black says grief was so great at his Detroit auto plant that supervisors briefly shut the line. `The look on everybody`s face. It was just shocking,` the 53-year-old told AFP outside Detroit`s New Bethel Baptist Church, where the music icon kicked off her storied career singing gospel as a child. `Hearts were heavy, people were like trying to get themselves together, so the supervisor was like go to the bathroom,` he said. `Too many people were going to the bathroom, so they officially shut it down... they cranked it back up.` What made it all so raw was many still remembered how Aretha had only visited the factory only four to six years earlier, Black recalled.