Funeral Set For Famed Detroit Singer Ortheia Barnes

Funeral arrangements are set for this week for Detroit-based jazz and R&B singer Ortheia Barnes-Kennerly.

She gained fame as both a musician and a minister.

Though she never received the national acclaim of some she sang with, like Aretha Franklin, the woman who was known on stage simply as Ortheia Barnes touched hearts on a number of levels.

She opened for Motown legends Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and Gladys Knight, owned a nightclub and hosted her own cable TV show.

Barnes was also an ordained minister and planted water wells in Africa.

She’d had several strokes in recent years but continued to work.

She was scheduled to perform in the U.S. Virgin Islands when she was rushed to a hospital where she later died.

Ortheia Barnes was 70.   

Here’s one of her songs, “Waiting For Joey.”