The remains of American-born Baker will be laid to rest in the hallowed Parisian monument on November 30, an aide to President Emmanuel Macron told AFP on Sunday, confirming a report in the Le Parisien newspaper.

Baker will become just the sixth woman to join the around 80 great national figures of French history in the Pantheon after Simone Veil, a former French minister who survived the Holocaust and fought for abortion rights, entered in 2018.

"When the president said yes, (it was a) great joy," she said.

The Baker family have been requesting her induction since 2013, with a petition gathering about 38,000 signatures.

Guesdon said the campaign has "made people discover the undertakings of Josephine Baker, who was only known to some as an international star, a great artist," Guesdon said.

- From Missouri to Paris -

She quickly caught the eye of a producer, who sent her to Paris where at the age of 19 she became the star of the hugely popular "La Revue Negre", which helped popularise jazz and African-American culture in France.

On November 30, 1937, she married Jean Lion, allowing her to get French nationality. She would go on to divorce him and remarry twice more, adopting 12 children along the way.

She later went on a mission to Morocco and toured the resistance movement, being appointed a lieutenant in the French air force's female auxillary corps.

"I only had one thing in mind... to help France," she told Ina archives.

"Josephine Baker is a true anti-racist, a true anti-fascist," Bruckner told AFP.

The Pantheon is a memorial complex for the legendary national figures in France's history from the worlds of politics, culture and science.

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