Cissy Houston, Whitney’s Grammy-winning mother, dies at 91

Cissy Houston, the mother of the late Whitney Houston and a two-time Grammy winner who performed alongside superstars such as Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin, has died. She was 91.

Houston died on Monday morning in her New Jersey home while under hospice care for Alzheimer’s disease, her daughter-in-law Pat Houston told The Associated Press. The acclaimed gospel singer was surrounded by her family.

“Our hearts are filled with pain and sadness. We loss the matriarch of our family,” Ms Houston said in a statement. She said her mother-in-law’s contributions to popular music and culture are “unparalleled”.

“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.”

Houston was in the well-known vocal group the Sweet Inspirations, with Doris Troy and her niece Dee Dee Warwick. The group sang backing vocals for a variety of soul singers including Otis Redding, Lou Rawls, The Drifters and Dionne Warwick.

The Sweet Inspirations appeared on Van Morrison’s Brown Eyed Girl and sang backing vocals for The Jimi Hendrix Experience on the song Burning Of The Midnight Lamp in 1967. In the same year, Houston worked on Franklin’s classic Ain’t No Way.

Houston’s last performance with the Sweet Inspirations came after the group appeared on stage with Presley in a Las Vegas show in 1969. Her final recording session with the group turned into their biggest R&B hit (Gotta Find) A Brand New Lover, a composition by the production team of Gamble & Huff, who appeared on the group’s fifth album, Sweet Sweet Soul.

During that time, the group occasionally performed live concert dates with Franklin. After the group’s success and four albums together, Houston left The Sweet Inspirations to pursue a solo career where she flourished.

Houston became an in-demand session singer and recorded more than 600 songs in multiple genres throughout her career. Her vocals can heard on tracks alongside a wide range of artists including Chaka Khan, Donny Hathaway, Jimi Hendrix, Luther Vandross, Beyonce, Paul Simon, Roberta Flack and her daughter.

In 1971, Houston’s signature vocals were featured on Burt Bacharach’s solo album, which includes Mexican Divorce, All Kinds Of People and One Less Bell To Answer. She performed various standards including Barbra Streisand’s hit song, Evergreen.

Houston won Grammys for her albums Face to Face in 1997 and He Leadeth Me the following year in the best traditional soul gospel album category.

Houston wrote three books: He Leadeth Me, How Sweet The Sound: My Life With God And Gospel and Remembering Whitney: A Mother’s Story Of Life, Loss And The Night The Music Stopped.

In 1938, Cissy Houston started her career when she joined her sister Anne and brothers Larry and Nicky to form the gospel group, The Drinkard Four, who recorded one album. She attended New Hope Baptist Church, where she later become minister of sacred music.

Houston was the youngest of eight children.

“We are touched by your generous support, and your outpouring of love during our profound time of grief,” Ms Houston said on behalf of the family. “We respectfully request our privacy during this difficult time.”

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

Cissy Houston was born Emily Drinkard in Newark, the youngest of eight children of a factory worker and a housewife. She was just five when she and three siblings founded the Drinkard Singers.

She later said she would have been happy to remain in gospel, but John Houston encouraged her to take on studio work. When rockabilly star Ronnie Hawkins (along with drummer Levon Helm and other future members of The Band) needed an extra voice, Cissy Houston stepped in.

“I wanted to get my work done, and get it done quickly. I was there, but I didn’t have to be part of them. I was in the world, but I wasn’t of the world, as St Paul put it,” Houston wrote in “How Sweet the Sound,” remembering how she soon began working with the Drifters and other singers.

“At least in the recording studio we were living together as God intended us to. Some days, we spent 12 or 15 hours together there,” she wrote. “The skin-deep barriers of race seemed to fall away as we toiled side by side creating our little pop masterpieces.”