The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, has passed away this morning. The singer was 76 and, according to CNN, died at 9:50 am this morning in Detroit, MI. Her cause of death was from pancreatic cancer. In a statement made by Franklin’s family said the “official cause of death was due to advance pancreatic cancer of the neuroendocrine type, which was confirmed by Franklin’s oncologist, Dr. Philip Phillips of Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit.” The family continued on to say “In one of the darkest moments of our lives, we are not able to find the appropriate words to express the pain in our heart. We have lost the matriarch and rock of our family. The love she had for her children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and cousins knew no bounds.”

The tragic news comes days after multiple sources reported that she was “gravely ill” and in hospice. Franklin was an icon and a pioneer in the music industry. She has had over 100 chart-topping singles, making her the best-performing female artist in the chart’s history. She has won 18 Grammy awards and was the first female to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. Her last performance was last November at Elton John’s AIDS Foundation gala in New York and her final album, A Brand New Me, consisted of original recordings of her greatest hits “with modern musical arrangements from London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.”