In Memoriam: Cissy Houston (September 30, 1933 – October 7, 2024)

Cissy Houston, beloved soul and gospel singer and mother to Whitney Houston, has died.

She was 91.

Details: Houston dies at 91

Houston, a two-time Grammy winner, passed away at her home earlier this morning in New Jersey, according to her daughter-in-law Pat Houston. Houston, who was surrounded by her family, was under hospice care for Alzheimer’s disease.

“Our hearts are filled with pain and sadness. We loss the matriarch of our family,” the family shared in a statement.

“Mother Cissy has been a strong and towering figure in our lives. A woman of deep faith and conviction, who cared greatly about family, ministry, and community. Her more than seven-decade career in music and entertainment will remain at the forefront of our hearts.”

Music career

Born as Emily Drinkard on September 30, 1933 in Newark, N.J., Houston started performing in church at an early age. She sang with her family’s gospel act before getting into in popular music. In the 1960s, she became a member of The Sweet Inspirations. The group sang backup for a variety of soul singers including Lou Rawls, The Drifters, and Otis Redding. They also sang backup for Dionne Warwick, who is also Houston’s neice.

Houston’s many credits included:

• Franklin’s “Think”
• ”(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”
• Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl”
• Dusty Springfield’s “Son of a Preacher Man”
• The Sweet Inspirations had their own top 20 single with the soul-rock “Sweet Inspiration”

Houston was one of the top in-demand studio session singers. She recorded more than 600 songs in multiple genres throughout her career.

Her vocals can be heard on tracks alongside a wide range of artists including:

• Luther Vandross
• Beyoncé
• Donny Hathaway
• Jimi Hendrix
• Chaka Khan
• Roberta Flack
• Paul Simon
• her daughter Whitney Houston

She inspired the youth

Houston love her hometown of Newark and often spent much time there. She presided for decades over the Youth Inspirational Choir at Newark’s New Hope Baptist Church. She was also the church’s musical director, where Whitney Houston sang as a child.

Cissy Houston and her daughter Whitney Houston

When she was not directing the youth choir, she was guiding her daughter’s music career.

Whitney Houston made her debut on national television when she and Cissy Houston sang a medley of Franklin hits on “The Merv Griffin Show”.

They would later sing together often in concert and appeared in the 1996 film “The Preacher’s Wife.” Houston also appeared in the video for one of Whitney’s biggest songs from the mid-1980s, “Greatest Love of All.” The video was filmed as a mother-daughter homage.

Whitney would predecease her mother in 2012 at 48 years old, when she was found unconscious in a bathtub at the Beverly Hills hotel over Grammy weekend.

Several years later in 2015, her granddaughter, Bobbi Kristina, passed away at only 22 years old from similar circumstances like her mother. She was found unconscious in a bathtub causing her to be put on life support before she passed.

Life for Cissy Houston

After her daughter’a death, Cissy wrote a book entitled Remembering Whitney, detailing her life in New Jersey while also honoring her daughter’s legacy.

Gilda Rogers interviews Cissy Houston

Houston was briefly married to Freddie Garland in the 1950s and had one son, Gary Garland. Garland was a guard for the Denver Nuggets and later sang on many of Whitney Houston’s tours. Houston then married Whitney’s father, entertainment executive John Russell Houston, from 1959-1990. In addition to Whitney, the Houstons also had a son named Michael.

Houston was the youngest of eight children of a factory worker and a housewife. She was just 5 when she and three siblings founded the Drinkard Singers, a gospel group that lasted 30 years. The group performed on the same bill as Mahalia Jackson among others. They went on to release the 1959 album “A Joyful Noise.”