Aretha's hearse, a 1940 carved side La Salle, is something that has been around, and carried not just a few history makers. Rosa Parks also was carried in it.

Swanson Funeral Home's 1940 Cadillac LaSalle hearse

For the last 50 years, it's been reserved at Swanson Funeral Home for some of the Motor City's most stately send-offs.

The ivory hearse carried Rosa Parks in 2005, when the pallbearers pushed the antique vehicle with all their might on the final stretch toward the civil rights hero's grave at Detroit's Woodlawn Cemetery. It transported the Temptations baritone David Ruffin in 1991 and Levi Stubbs of the Four Tops in 2008.

Swanson was two years out of the Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science when he founded the funeral home in 1958. He said he bought the hearse several years later, knowing it was a treasure the moment he saw it. The LaSalle brand ended production in 1940, making Swanson's hearse one of the last of the model.

"I guess I have a liking for vintage cars - classic cars," he said. "We've been very attentive to it over the years."

As Swanson built the business, his funeral home grew to become a "Detroit institution that has shepherded thousands of residents far above and beyond 8 Mile and guided families and communities through their grief," as the Detroit Free Press described it in 2005, ahead of Parks' funeral. Over the years, the Free Press reported, Swanson has provided scholarships to low-income students and donated to churches and various civic organizations.

The funeral home has even attracted good deeds from Franklin herself. Linda Swanson, the funeral home's vice president, told the Associated Press that Franklin would often pay for the funeral expenses of needy families - often "in full without being asked or prompted to do so."

https://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2018/08/aretha_franklins_last_ride_wil.html

thanks Gary!