Detroit music icon Ortheia Barnes dies at age 70 [LISTEN]

I first heard Ortheia Barnes sing when I was a college student at U of M and home for summer break. A couple of good friends of mine and stopped at Doug’s Body Shop and my best friend and I stopped mid-sentence and were entranced when we heard Ortheia sing a very moving and powerful, “You Are My Friend.” After that night we were devoted Barnes fans, and returned pretty much every night that she performed to hear her sing that song.
Many years later when I returned to Detroit after living out-of-state for about a dozen years, I found Barnes again at a little jazz club on Woodward with a loyal following of Barnes believers, and when I requested yo are my friend and she sang it, it was clicheish as it may sound, like finding my way home.
The woman with the amazing contralto voice died, on Friday, May 15 at the age of 70. Barnes-Kennerly was in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands for a performance and died early Friday morning of congestive heart failure,
Funeral arrangements have been set for Ortheia Barnes-Kennerly, the R&B-jazz singer who became a Detroit community activist, entrepreneur and ordained minister, who died Friday. She was 70.
A public viewing is scheduled for Sunday, May 24, from 4-8 p.m. and Monday, May 25, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Swanson Funeral Home on 14751 W. McNichols Rd. in Detroit.
The funeral is scheduled for Tuesday, May 26, at noon at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church on 18700 James Couzens in Detroit. A family hour is scheduled for 11 a.m. the same day.
Interment will be at Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit.
Husband Robert Kennerly posted on Facebook on Friday morning that he was en route to St. Thomas.
“There’s Aretha Franklin, who’s the Queen of Soul. Ortheia was the empress,” said musician and longtime friend Ralph Armstrong. “They were neck and neck, and they were dear friends, too.”
In 1990, she opened Ortheia’s Place nightclub at Eight Mile and Stout, describing it as a “full-service arts venue” showcasing jazz, blues, comedy, poetry readings and dinner theater.
“Ortheia Barnes was a true lady of wisdom, grace and love,” said Gail Perry-Mason, a Detroit financial consultant and public speaker. “She never had time to judge — she only had time to love. She was definitely one of my mentors, and a mentor to many in the Detroit community. One thing she totally believed in was unity.”
Hear one of Barnes’ early hits here:
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