Denise Thimes was still a young girl when she first interacted with Aretha Franklin in St. Louis during the late ’60s. But even then the Queen of Soul made a big impression on Thimes, who is now an accomplished jazz vocalist herself.
“I emulated her a lot and never had a chance to, as a little girl, sing for her – which is what I wanted to do when she would come to our home,” Thimes told St. Louis on the Air host Don Marsh. “But to have done her birthday party [a few years ago] and to stand there and watch her watch me sing – Don, I had to fight back the tears the whole time.”
On Tuesday’s show, Thimes shared with listeners both her memories of Franklin, who passed away on August 16, and several of her favorite songs from the music icon’s repertoire.
She described Franklin as “the very fiber of music in America.”
“Aretha was light,” Thimes said. “She had a sound that no one else had, and that is what got her to where she was. … Aretha, in my opinion, set a precedent of how singers should really sound.”
As the world continues to say goodbye to Franklin, who died of pancreatic cancer, the sadness still felt particularly heavy for Thimes, who launched the Mildred Thimes Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer in honor of her mother in 1997.
“I sort of had pre-information that it was going down and [that Franklin’s health] was getting worse, and it’s just been really hard,” said Thimes, whose late father, radio legend Lou “Fatha” Thimes, promoted a couple of Franklin’s St. Louis concerts decades ago. “I’ve never mourned so hard for a celebrity-status kind of person but who I had the blessing of knowing on a personal level.”
And while she didn’t get the chance to sing for Franklin as a child, that opportunity did eventually come her way – in an unexpected fashion.
Thimes recalled picking up the phone several years ago and noticing that the call was showing up as an “unknown caller.”
“The voice on the other end asked to speak with me, and I very begrudgingly said, ‘Speaking,’ because I thought it was a telemarketer,” Thimes said. “And she said, ‘Hi, Denise, this is Aretha Franklin.’ I’m still a fan, so it was such a shock.”
The Queen of Soul was calling to personally invite Thimes to attend and sing at her birthday party at the Ritz Carlton in New York City. It was a star-studded affair.
“There were quite a few celebrities, so many that I can’t even name them all,” Thimes said. “Denzel Washington was doing a play on Broadway. He came over to give her a kiss on the cheek and wish her a happy birthday.”
And Thimes was among them – singing for the woman whose voice she used to try to imitate as a young girl in the mirror singing along to “Good To Me As I Am To You” and “Ain’t No Way.”
“I remember I would be standing there thinking, ‘if I could just sing like this, I would be so happy.’”
Franklin will be laid to rest on Friday, August 31. The overwhelming outpouring in response to the music legend’s passing was no surprise to Thimes – because of her impact within the music industry, and in people’s lives because of her music.
“We heard what Aretha was feeling and was going through [with her music],” Thimes said. “We heard her life. Aretha was very real – soulful, beautiful and just outstanding.”
Republished with permission of St. Louis Public Radio from news.stlpublicradio.org.
