The Queen of Soul continues to make history even in death. On Monday, Aretha Franklin received a posthumous Pulitzer Prize Special Citation honor, becoming the first individual woman to earn the special citation since its inception in 1930, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
The Pulitzer Prize organization took to Twitter Monday sharing the good news. "Congratulations to @Aretha Franklin and her family and friends," the organization wrote.
The 18-time Grammy Award winner received the posthumous honor for "her indelible contribution to American music and culture for more than five decades.”
Sabrina Owens, the singer's niece and the executor of her estate told the AP, "Aretha is blessed and highly favored even in death. She's continued to receive multiple awards — she’s received almost every award imaginable and now to get the Pulitzer Prize, it’s just amazing." Owens continued, "Aretha continues to bless us with her music and just paving the way for women going forward. It’s thrilling. She would be so happy right now."
Franklin died August 16 of pancreatic cancer. She was 76 years old.
She previously made history as the first woman to be inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame when she entered in 1987.
