Bobby Brown has led tributes to Cissy Houston, the mother of the late Whitney Houston, following her death aged 91.
The gospel singer, who won two Grammys and performed opposite stars including Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin, died on Monday morning in her home in New Jersey.
Cissy was under hospice care for Alzheimer’s disease and died surrounded by her family.
“Sending love and blessings to the Houston family on this great loss,” US music star Brown and his wife Alicia Etheredge-Brown said in a statement given to the PA news agency.
“May she rest in peace and power.”
Brown and Whitney were married from 1992 to 2007, before her death aged 48 in 2012.
She accidentally drowned in a bathtub at a hotel in Beverly Hills before a coroner listed her drug use as a contributing factor to her death.
The death of Cissy comes a day after Jennifer Hudson paid tribute to Whitney during the 50th anniversary of the American Music Awards (AMAs).
Hudson performed a similar medley of songs to Whitney’s 1994 performance at the awards show where she won eight gongs for The Bodyguard soundtrack – and thanked her mother and father during almost every acceptance speech.
During her seven-decade career, Cissy starred in group The Sweet Inspirations who sang backing vocals for soul stars including Otis Redding and Dionne Warwick.
The group appeared on stage with Presley in a Las Vegas show in 1969 and performed a handful of live concert dates with Franklin, before Cissy left the vocal group to pursue a solo career.
She became a successful session singer, with her vocals heard on tracks from Chaka Khan, Jimi Hendrix, Luther Vandross, Beyonce, Paul Simon, and her daughter Whitney.
Khan described Cissy as a “true legend” in a tribute on Instagram, sharing a black and white photograph of the pair in a recording studio alongside the late Vandross and British superstar David Bowie.
“Her voice was a gift to the world, and her spirit was a guiding light for so many, including myself,” Khan wrote.
“Our paths crossed in the most beautiful ways, and I will always cherish the moments we shared — both in the studio and privately.
“Cissy, your legacy will live on in every note we sang and in every heart you touched. Rest in harmony, beautiful soul. Your voice and memory will forever echo in our hearts.”
Cissy won Grammy awards for her albums Face To Face in 1997 and He Leadeth Me two years later both in the best traditional soul gospel album category.
During her career she wrote three books titled 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.
On Monday, Cissy’s daughter-in-law Pat Houston confirmed her death to The Associated Press in a statement which read: “Our hearts are filled with pain and sadness. We loss the matriarch of our family.
“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.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel