Carolyn Franklin

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Carolyn Ann Franklin (b. May 13, 1944, Memphis, Tennessee - d. April 25, 1988, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan) was the younger sister of soul music singer Aretha Franklin, and daughter of the Rev. C. L. Franklin, the famous Detroit-based preacher and Barbara Siggers Franklin, a pianist and gifted vocalist. She can be seen in the 1980 movie "Blues Brothers". She is the smaller of the three backup singers in the diner scene when her sister Aretha Franklin does a classic rendition of her song "Think".

Carolyn Franklin recorded in her own right, serving as one of Aretha's background vocalists for some years as well as writing some of her songs, including Ain't No Way and the 1973 hit Angel.

She died in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan from cancer, as her sister Erma Franklin would in 2002. Just ten days before she died she was awarded a B.A. in music from Marygrove College. Her brother Rev. Cecil Franklin died in 1989 of a heart attack. Her other brother was a career pilot with the US Air Force.