Aretha Gives Birth to First Son Clarence

Franklin's son Clarence was born when she was 14 years old and at age 16 she gave birth to her son Edward.

She has never identified the fathers of either of her two eldest children nor the circumstances of her childhood pregnancies. Aretha's grandmother, Rachel, who lived in a guest house behind her father's LaSalle Street home, raised Aretha's sons while she pursued her singing career. The Franklin family moved from their North End home on Boston Street to LaSalle during the late 1950s.