Cathy Hughes Tells Tom He Was Aretha Franklin's Favorite

Cathy Hughes Tells Tom He Was Aretha Franklin’s Favorite

If you knew the Queen, you know that she didn’t like air conditioning. She liked her home, hotel rooms, tour buses and anywhere else she went, to be warm. Urban One founder Cathy Hughes , specifically remembers a time when Aretha Franklin sat in the audience at the Lincoln Theater, with the air conditioner on, to watch Tom Joyner be honored.

The event was held during Obama’s first inaugural weekend and she sat right next to the Joyner family during the ceremony. That’s the day, Hughes says, the queen told her that she’d do anything for Tom Joyner. “You were her favorite,” Hughes told Joyner.

While Hughes is saddened to know that she’ll never get another phone call, “in the middle of the night,” from the queen, she says she’s, “so thankful to God that she’s no longer suffering.”

Heaven is rejoicing and welcoming the Queen of Soul home, they’re also “turning the air conditioner off.”