Photo Courtesy of Instagram/@RollingStones

The Queen of Soul, the Phenom, Aretha Franklin has passed away. According to TMZ, she died Thursday morning after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 76.

Franklin who was known for having one of the greatest voices in music history, and for hits like “Respect,” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman and many more has been fighting her illness for months, but tried her hardest to push through and remain in good spirits. However, her battle ended today.

The news site reports that Franklin was surrounded by her close friends and family when she passed away at 9:50 a.m. in her Detroit home where she was under hospice care.

Publicist Gwendolyn Quinn shared a statement through the Associated Press which read,

“In one of the darkest moments of our lives, we are not able to find the appropriate words to express the pain in our heart. We have lost the matriarch and rock of our family.”

WhereistheBuzz sends our deepest condolences to Franklin’s family and close friends.