Carl Ellan Kelley was the half sister of Aretha Franklin, the legendary “Queen of Soul,” and the daughter of Rev. C.L. Franklin, the influential Detroit preacher and civil rights figure who fathered six children across two very different chapters of his life. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1940, Carl Ellan grew up far from the fame that would later surround her father and her famous half siblings, raised instead by her grandmother in circumstances that stemmed from a deeply troubling episode in her father’s past. Her name resurfaced publicly years later, first through Aretha Franklin’s own account of her family history, and again after Aretha’s death in 2018, when interest in the singer’s full family tree, including lesser known relatives like Carl Ellan, grew sharply. This article lays out everything that is reliably known about Carl Ellan Kelley, clearly separates confirmed facts from claims that remain unverified, and explains why her name keeps appearing in searches today.
Quick Bio Table
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Carl Ellan Kelley (also recorded in some documents as Carol Ellan Kelley and Carl Ellan Franklin Kelly) |
| Date of Birth | November 17, 1940 |
| Date of Death | January 30, 2019 (age 78) |
| Birthplace | Memphis, Tennessee, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Private citizen; reportedly worked in nursing later in life |
| Known For | Being the half sister of Aretha Franklin and the daughter of Rev. C.L. Franklin |
| Father | Rev. Clarence LaVaughn (C.L.) Franklin, Baptist minister and civil rights leader |
| Mother | Mildred Jennings |
| Raised By | Her maternal grandmother, following her mother’s separation from the family after her birth |
| Half Siblings | Erma Franklin, Cecil Franklin, Aretha Franklin, Carolyn Franklin, and Vaughn Franklin |
| Children | Reportedly included Charles G. Smith and Herman E. Wheatley III, along with grandchildren and great grandchildren |
| Marital Status | Not publicly documented |
| Public Profile | Lived a private life outside the entertainment industry |
Early Life and Family Background
Understanding who Carl Ellan Kelley was requires understanding the circumstances of her birth, which were painful and, by any modern standard, deeply wrong. Her story is not a typical celebrity relative profile, and telling it honestly means being direct about facts that have been documented in biographical research and family accounts rather than softening them for the sake of a tidy narrative.
Born to Rev. C.L. Franklin and Mildred Jennings
Carl Ellan Kelley was born on November 17, 1940, in Memphis, Tennessee. Her mother was Mildred Jennings, a young member of the congregation at the church where Rev. C.L. Franklin preached before he relocated to Detroit and built his national reputation. According to David Ritz’s biography of Aretha Franklin, “Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin,” and corroborating references found in academic writing on the Franklin family, Mildred was only twelve years old when Franklin, then twenty five, fathered a child with her. This was an abuse of power and trust by an adult clergyman against a child in his own congregation, and it is documented as such in serious biographical scholarship rather than tabloid speculation.
The aftermath was harsh for Mildred rather than for Franklin. Historical accounts describe her being separated from her newborn daughter and effectively pushed out of her home and church community, while Franklin retained his standing as a minister and went on to build one of the most recognized ministries in Black American religious life. It is a difficult but important piece of context for understanding Carl Ellan Kelley’s entire life story, because it shaped everything that followed, from who raised her to how long it took her to have any relationship with her father’s other children.
Raised by Her Grandmother
Because Mildred Jennings was separated from her child soon after birth, Carl Ellan Kelley was raised primarily by her grandmother rather than by either of her biological parents. Funeral home records associated with her later life identify her grandmother as Cornelious Mayo Hill Berry. Carl Ellan grew up in Memphis without the resources, recognition, or family closeness that her paternal half siblings, who were being raised in Detroit under Rev. Franklin’s household, experienced. For most of her childhood, she had no real relationship with her father or with the siblings who would later become well known musicians and public figures.
How Carl Ellan Kelley Is Connected to Aretha Franklin
The connection between Carl Ellan Kelley and Aretha Franklin runs through their shared father, Rev. C.L. Franklin, though the two women grew up in entirely separate households and did not meet as children.
A Complicated Beginning
Rev. C.L. Franklin was already a prominent and admired preacher by the time Aretha Franklin, born in 1942, and her siblings Erma, Cecil, and Carolyn were growing up in Detroit. He is remembered for his “million dollar voice,” his recorded sermons that sold widely across the country, and his role helping organize the 1963 Detroit Walk to Freedom alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. That public legacy sat alongside the private, largely hidden fact of Carl Ellan’s existence in Memphis, a fact that his Detroit household reportedly did not know about for years.
Reaching Out to Her Father
According to accounts that have circulated in family retrospectives and entertainment coverage of the Franklin family, Carl Ellan reached out to her father directly when she was around seventeen or eighteen years old. She wrote him a letter expressing her wish to know him, even though she had grown up aware of who he was. Rev. Franklin reportedly did not respond to her directly at first. Instead, he is said to have contacted a fellow Memphis minister who knew him personally, and that minister reportedly encouraged Franklin to finally acknowledge Carl Ellan as his daughter. This part of the story, while widely repeated across secondary sources covering the Franklin family, is based on family recollection rather than a primary public record, so it should be read as a reported account rather than a fully documented historical fact.
Meeting the Franklin Family
Once acknowledged, Carl Ellan eventually traveled to Detroit and met her father in person. Some accounts describe her grandmother on Franklin’s side, known within the family as “Big Mama,” welcoming her warmly despite the family’s surprise at learning of her existence. Reports differ on exactly which siblings she met first and how quickly those relationships developed, and some sources suggest she did not immediately cross paths with Carolyn Franklin. What is more consistently reported is that Carl Ellan’s relationship with the Franklin family, while never central to public life the way her siblings’ careers were, continued in some form for the rest of her life.
Life After Reconnecting With the Franklins
Once Carl Ellan Kelley had established contact with her father and half siblings, her life took a much quieter path than theirs, one lived largely outside of public view.
Where She Lived
Some retrospective profiles indicate that Carl Ellan spent time in New Orleans, where she reportedly accompanied her father to church events, and later moved to Seattle, where her relationship with the family is described as becoming warmer and less strained over time. These details are drawn from secondary biographical write ups rather than primary news reporting from the time, so they should be treated as reported rather than firmly established.
Career and Personal Life
Unlike her famous half siblings, Carl Ellan Kelley did not pursue a public or entertainment career. Several profiles describe her as having worked as a nurse for a portion of her adult life, though this detail comes primarily from secondary sources rather than an official biography or verified employment record, so it is best understood as a reported detail rather than a confirmed fact. What is clear is that she consistently chose privacy over public attention, even as interest in the Franklin family grew throughout Aretha’s decades long career.
Children and Family
Reports indicate that Carl Ellan Kelley had children of her own, most commonly named in family retrospectives as Charles G. Smith and Herman E. Wheatley III, and she is described in some accounts as also having a daughter. She reportedly went on to have grandchildren and great grandchildren as well. As with several other details of her adult life, the exact number and names of her children vary slightly between sources, so readers should treat the specifics as reported rather than officially confirmed.
Carl Ellan Kelley and Aretha Franklin’s Will
One of the more widely repeated claims about Carl Ellan Kelley is that Aretha Franklin included her in one of the handwritten wills discovered at Aretha’s Michigan home after her death in August 2018, reportedly leaving her fifty thousand dollars. Multiple handwritten documents were indeed found and later became the subject of a closely watched legal dispute among Aretha’s sons over which version, if any, should be treated as her valid will. The specific detail about a fifty thousand dollar bequest to Carl Ellan appears across several family retrospective articles, but it has not been independently confirmed through primary court filings or major news outlets covering the will dispute, so this detail should be read as reported rather than verified. If accurate, it would suggest that Aretha Franklin, despite the painful origins of her father’s relationship with Carl Ellan’s mother, still recognized Carl Ellan as family in a meaningful and material way.
Why People Search for Carl Ellan Kelley Today
Search interest in Carl Ellan Kelley tends to spike whenever public attention returns to Aretha Franklin, whether through anniversaries of her death, documentaries, biopic releases, or renewed interest in the Franklin family’s history. Readers who learn about Aretha’s father, Rev. C.L. Franklin, and his complicated personal life often want to understand his full family tree, and Carl Ellan Kelley’s story adds an important, more difficult dimension to that history that goes beyond the music and the fame most people associate with the Franklin name.
Her story also resonates because it highlights a side of celebrity family history that rarely gets attention: the relatives who did not grow up with wealth, recognition, or a public platform, and whose lives were shaped by circumstances entirely outside their control. Carl Ellan Kelley never sought the spotlight, yet her connection to one of the most celebrated singers in American history means her name continues to surface in searches, biographical write ups, and family history discussions about the Franklins.
Carl Ellan Kelley’s Death
Carl Ellan Kelley died on January 30, 2019, at the age of 78, less than a year after her half sister Aretha Franklin passed away in August 2018. Funeral arrangements associated with her passing were handled through a funeral home in the Memphis area, consistent with her Tennessee roots, though some family retrospectives place her later years and death in Detroit, so the exact location of her death is not entirely consistent across available sources. Her passing received relatively little mainstream media coverage at the time compared to the extensive coverage of Aretha Franklin’s death and subsequent will dispute, which is itself a reflection of how private Carl Ellan’s life remained even after her family connection became more widely known.
Conclusion
Carl Ellan Kelley’s life tells a story that is far more complicated, and in many ways far more human, than a simple “celebrity relative” headline can capture. She was born into difficult, painful circumstances involving her father’s abuse of a young girl in his congregation, raised apart from her famous half siblings, and only reconnected with the Franklin family as a teenager through her own initiative. She lived a private life largely removed from music and entertainment, and she died quietly in 2019, not long after Aretha Franklin herself passed away. Readers searching for Carl Ellan Kelley today are often drawn in by her connection to one of America’s most celebrated voices, but her own story, one of resilience, quiet persistence, and an eventual, if imperfect, reconciliation with her father’s family, deserves to be told with accuracy and care rather than sensationalism.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Carl Ellan Kelley? Carl Ellan Kelley was the half sister of singer Aretha Franklin and the daughter of Rev. C.L. Franklin, the prominent Detroit minister and civil rights figure. She was born in 1940 in Memphis, Tennessee, and lived largely outside of public life.
How is Carl Ellan Kelley related to Aretha Franklin? Carl Ellan Kelley and Aretha Franklin shared the same father, Rev. C.L. Franklin, making them half sisters. Carl Ellan’s mother was Mildred Jennings, while Aretha’s mother was Barbara Siggers Franklin, Rev. Franklin’s wife at the time.
Did Carl Ellan Kelley grow up with Aretha Franklin? No, Carl Ellan Kelley did not grow up with Aretha Franklin. She was raised by her grandmother in Memphis and only reconnected with her father and the Franklin family as a teenager, long after Aretha and her siblings had grown up together in Detroit.
Was Carl Ellan Kelley included in Aretha Franklin’s will? Several family retrospective sources report that Aretha Franklin left Carl Ellan Kelley fifty thousand dollars in one of her handwritten wills, though this detail has not been independently confirmed through primary legal records, so it should be treated as a reported claim rather than a fully verified fact.
When did Carl Ellan Kelley die? Carl Ellan Kelley died on January 30, 2019, at the age of 78, roughly five months after her half sister Aretha Franklin passed away in August 2018.
