Aretha Franklin, the "Queen of Soul" and the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, died Thursday from pancreatic cancer at her home in Detroit. She was 76.

Franklin performed at the inaugurations of presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Besides winning 18 Grammy awards, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush in 2005.

(Martin Luther king Jr. Benefit Concert in June 1968 at Madison Square Garden)
[Getty/Kyodo]

Known for her classic hit songs such as "Respect" and "I Say a Little Prayer," Franklin also used her powerful voice to speak out on behalf of the civil rights movement. She was a friend of Martin Luther King Jr.

Franklin was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1942, and raised mostly in Detroit where her father, C.L. Franklin, was a prominent Baptist minister and a gospel singer.

Obama and President Donald Trump mourned the death of Franklin, calling her the Queen of Soul.

"She was a great woman, with a wonderful gift from God, her voice," Trump wrote in a Twitter post. "She will be missed!"

Obama tweeted, "In her voice, we could feel our history, all of it and in every shade -- our power and our pain, our darkness and our light, our quest for redemption and our hard-won respect."

"May the Queen of Soul rest in eternal peace." he said.