Cissy Houston, the two-time Grammy-winning soul and gospel artiste and mother of Whitney Houston, has died.
The 91-year-old singer died on Monday morning in her New Jersey home while under hospice care for Alzheimer’s disease.
Pat Houston, her daughter-in-law, in a statement, described Cissy as a “strong and towering figure” in the family’s life.
“Our hearts are filled with pain and sadness. We lost the matriarch of our family,” the statement reads.
“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.
“Her contributions to popular music and culture are unparalleled.”
Cissy was born in New Jersey in 1933 as the youngest of eight children. Born Emily Drinkard, she began singing at a young age after she formed a gospel group with her siblings.
She started to gain popularity in the 1960s as a member of the backing group The Sweet Inspirations with Doris Troy and her niece Dee Dee Warwick.
They sang backup for soul legends including Otis Redding, Lou Rawls and the Drifters, and Dusty Springfield.
Cissy left the group to pursue a solo career, which made her one of the world’s most in-demand session singers of that era.
She recorded more than 600 songs and her vocals can be heard on tracks by Chaka Khan, Luther Vandross, Beyoncé and Paul Simon.
In 1997, Cissy won a Grammy Award for her traditional soul gospel album ‘Face to Face’. She secured another Grammy Award in 1998 for her album ‘He Leadeth Me’.
She lost her daughter Whitney in 2012. Whitney died at the age of 48 after years of battling addiction and a notoriously troubled marriage.
Cissy and Whitney were famously close. Their relationship was also one of mentor and protégé. She also recorded a duet with Whitney titled ‘I Know Him So Well’ in 1987.
She married Gary Garland, an NBA basketball player, from 1955 to 1997 and they share a son Gary. In 1958, Houston met John Russell Houston, father of Michael and Whitney. The couple divorced in 1991. They had six grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
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