Mildred Gaddis

The church claims Ms. Franklin, rightly, as the preacher’s daughter who brought everything she had learned from gospel music — the timing, the dynamics, the ornaments, the vocal tones, the call-and-response with her backup singers, the way she played piano — into the hits that would make her a star for the next five decades and into her countless live concerts. When Ms. Franklin hit an artistic impasse she would reinvigorate herself by returning to church and recording albums of gospel standards.