Whitney Houston’s mom, Grammy winner Cissy Houston, dies aged 91: inside their complicated relationship
Her death comes 12 years after the passing of the “I Will Always Love You” singer aged 48
The music industry and beyond is mourning the passing of Whitney Houston’s mother, Cissy Houston.
The “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” singer’s mom, herself also a Grammy-winning singer, passed away on Monday, October 7 in her home in New Jersey while in hospice care for Alzheimer’s disease. She was 91.
Her passing comes 12 years after the passing of her daughter, who died aged 48 on February 11, 2012, and nine years after the death of her granddaughter Bobbi Kristina Brown, who passed away aged 22 on July 25, 2015.
Cissy is survived by sons Gary, 66, and Michael, 63. In a statement to the Associated Press, the latter’s wife, Pat Houston, shared: “Our hearts are filled with pain and sadness. We lost the matriarch of our family,” noting how her contributions to the music industry 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,” she added.
Early life
Born Emily Drinkard on September 30, 1933, in Newark, New Jersey, Cissy was the youngest of eight children. She was married to Whitney’s father, who passed away in 2003, from 1964 to 1991, though they separated in 1977.
She began her music career when she was only five years old as part of the band The Drinkard Singers along with her sisters Anne, Lee and Marie and brothers Larry and Nicky. Anne was the mother of fellow famed singers Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick.
Later in the 1960s, she along with her niece Dee Dee and Doris Troy formed The Sweet Inspirations, who did backup vocals for songs such as Van Morrison’s hit “Brown Eyed Girl,” and for other legendary artists such as Aretha Franklin, Elvis Presley and Jimi Hendrix.
Relationship with Whitney Houston
Though she was an instrumental figure in her daughter’s journey into becoming one of the most renowned singers of our time, the two did have a complicated relationship, which was particularly strained by Whitney’s drug use.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, she staged several interventions to address Whitney’s addiction, including one with the help of a court order and two sheriffs, after which Whitney entered a drug rehabilitation program.
She was also outspoken about her disapproval of some of her daughter’s relationships. She disapproved of Whitney’s longtime friend Robyn Crawford, and though rumors swirled that the women’s relationship was romantic, Whitney long denied it, while Cissy maintained that that wasn’t the source of her distrust of Robyn.
Cissy also spoke, and wrote in her 2013 book, Remembering Whitney: My Story of Love, Loss, and the Night the Music Stopped, about her dislike of Whitney’s ex-husband Bobby Brown, who she claimed fueled her drug addiction.