Teen Mom
Despite growing up in a church, Aretha was exposed to adult behaviors when she was on the road traveling. She became a mother at 12 years old when she gave birth to her son, Clarence. Being a teen mom couldn’t have been easy. Her sister Erma said that “She was an excellent student who did well in her all classes.”
Source: Instagram, @arethafranklinforever
It was two years later when she had another baby named Edward. Both of her sons took her family’s name, Franklin. Soon after Edward was born, Aretha dropped out of school to focus on her music career. Erma said that this was the beginning of Aretha’s life of “silent suffering.” She later had two more children, Ted White, Jr., and Kecalf Cunningham.