Aretha Franklin To Loan Inauguration Hat to Smithsonian
by Najwa Moses at March 6, 2009, 9:43 AM
In an interview this morning with comedian Steve Harvey, on his WBLS radio show, Aretha Franklin confirmed that she will give the hat she wore to the Inauguration to the Smithsonian - but only on loan. It will then remain in Barack Obama's presidential library.
Franklin said she was shocked by all the interest in her hat for which she says her publicist's office was flooded with calls. The singer, who says she is still crying tears of joy about Obama's historic win, was looking for the perfect hat to go with her coat. She even went as far as houses in Paris, but ended up getting it from a store in Detroit "down on Woodward... On the main strip." The hat designer, Luke Song has been deluged by orders for replicas of the hat.