ARETHA Franklin will have an open-casket public service at a Detroit museum in anticipation of the enormous crowds, according to a report.

Sources close to the Queen of Soul’s family told TMZ the memorial will be held at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, which Franklin frequently visited.

The New York Post reports that the family nixed the idea of a traditional church service because of the thousands of fans who are likely to turn up.

The museum hosted Rosa Parks’ funeral in 2005.

Franklin, 76, died on Thursday morning after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

STEVIE WONDER RECALLS LAST DAYS WITH ARETHA
One of Franklin’s best friends and collaborators, Stevie Wonder, has broken down as he recounted his final few days with the Queen of Soul.

“She wasn’t able to speak back,” Wonder said as he choked up. “But her family felt that she could hear me and so I just said all the things that I’ve always said and told her to say hello to my sister.”

Wonder told CBS that the pair had spoken just months ago about making new music together.

“We’d been talking about it. There was a song that I had written called The Future, and we were going to sing it together,” Wonder said. “I thought I cried my last tear.”

Wonder travelled from his home in Los Angeles to Detroit on Tuesday after hearing that his friend was on her death bed.

Wonder co-wrote the track Until You Come Back to Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do), from her final album, 2017’s A Brand New Me.