In 2019, the section between Livernois and I-94 was named the Aretha Franklin Memorial Highway after Detroit native Aretha Franklin. The singer, who passed away the previous year, got her start in Detroit singing at a local church before embarking on a six-decade career that earned her 18 Grammy awards. She was the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and received the National Medal of Arts (1999), the Kennedy Center Honors (1994) and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2005). Franklin was also an activist in the Civil Rights Movement.