Cissy Houston, Grammy-winning gospel singer and Whitney Houston's mother, dies at 91

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Cissy Houston, the two-time Grammy-winning soul and gospel artist who sang with Aretha Franklin, Elvis Presley and other stars and knew triumph and heartbreak as Whitney Houston's mother, has died. He was 91.

Cissy Houston died Monday morning at her New Jersey home while being treated for Alzheimer's disease, her daughter-in-law Pat Houston told The Associated Press. The acclaimed gospel singer was surrounded by his family.

“Our hearts are filled with pain and sorrow. We have lost the matriarch of our family,” Pat Houston said in a statement. She said her mother-in-law's contributions to popular music and culture were “unparalleled.”

“Mother Sisi is a strong and powerful figure in our lives. A woman of deep faith and conviction, who cares deeply about family, ministry and community. His more than seven-decade career in music and entertainment will remain in our hearts.”

A church performer since childhood, Houston was part of a family gospel act before breaking into popular music in the 1960s as a member of the prominent backing group The Sweet Inspirations with Doris Troy and her niece Dee Dee Warwick. The group sang backup for a variety of soul singers, including Otis Redding, Lou Rawls and The Drifters. They also sang backup for Dionne Warwick.

Houston's many credits include Franklin's “Think” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” Van Morrison's “Brown Eyed Girl” and Dusty Springfield's “Son of a Preacher Man.” Sweet Inspiration also sang on stage with Presley, whom Houston fondly remembers for singing gospel and calling her “squirrel” during breaks in rehearsals.

“At the end of our engagement to him, he gave me a bracelet with my name on it,” she wrote in her 1998 memoir, “How Sweet the Sound.” His nickname for me: Squirrel.”

The Sweet Inspirations had their own Top 20 singles, including the soul-rock “Sweet Inspiration,” produced in the Memphis studio where Franklin and Springfield, among others, recorded hits, and released four albums in the late '60s. The group appeared on Van Morrison's “Brown Eyed Girl” and in 1967 sang background vocals for the Jimi Hendrix Experience on the song “Burning of the Midnight Lamp”.

Houston's last performance with The Sweet Inspirations was in 1969 when he joined Presley on stage at a Las Vegas show. His last recording session with the group resulted in a composition of their biggest R&B hit “(Gotta Find) A Brand New Lover”. The production team of Gamble & Half, 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 Inspiration to pursue a solo career where he flourished.

Houston became an in-demand session singer and recorded over 600 songs in multiple genres throughout his career. Her voice can be heard on tracks alongside a wide range of artists including Chaka Khan, Donny Hathaway, Jimi Hendrix, Luther Vandross, Beyoncé, Paul Simon, Roberta Flack and Whitney Houston.

CC Houston completed several records, including “Presenting CC Houston,” the disco-era hit “Think It Over,” and the Grammy-winning gospel albums “Face to Face” and “He Leadeth Me.”

In 1971, Houston's signature vocals appeared on solo albums by Burt Bacharach, including “Mexican Divorce,” “All Kinds of People” and “One Low Hour to Answer.” She performed several standards including Barbra Streisand's hit song “Evergreen”.

Not far from his native New Jersey or musical roots, Houston presided over the 200-member youth inspirational choir at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark for decades, where Whitney Houston Sung as a child.

Cissy Houston would say she discouraged her daughter from show business, but they were involved in music for most of Whitney's life, from church to stage performances to television and film and in the recording studio. Whitney's rise seemed inevitable, not just because of her obvious talent, but because of her background: Dion and Dee Dee Warwick were cousins, Leontyne Price a cousin removed, Franklin a close family friend.

Whitney Houston His national television debut came when he and CeCe Houston sang a medley of Franklin hits on “The Merv Griffin Show.” CC Houston sang backup on Whitney's eponymous, multi-platinum debut album, and the two shared lead on “I Know Him So Well” from the 1987 mega-seller “Whitney.”

They often sang together in concert and appeared in the 1996 film “The Preacher's Wife.” Perhaps their most inexcusable moment came from the video for one of Whitney's biggest hits from the mid-1980s, “The Greatest Love Of All.” It was filmed as a mother-daughter tribute, with a jubilant Whitney walking off the stage at Harlem's Apollo Theater and embracing Cissy Houston, who was standing in the wings.

On February 11, 2012, Whitney Houston was found dead — in what was ruled an accidental drowning — in a Beverly Hills bathtub. Cissy Houston will write a memoir about her daughter, “Remembering Whitney: A Mother's Story of Life, Loss and the Night the Music Stopped.”

In 2015, Sissy Houston was bereaved again when granddaughter Bobbi Kristina BrownThe only child of Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston, was found unconscious in a bathtub, spent months in a coma, and died at age 22. The family returned to the news in 2018 with the release of the “Whitney” documentary which included allegations by DD Warwick (who died in 2008). He molested Whitney when she was a girl.

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, Houston had a son, Michael.

Sissy Houston was born in Newark to Emily Drinkard, the youngest of eight children of a factory worker and a homemaker. She was just 5 years old when she and three siblings founded the Drinkard Singers, a gospel group that lasted 30 years, performing on the same bill as Mahalia Jackson, among others, and releasing the 1959 album “A Joyful Noise.”

He later said that he would have been happy to stay in gospel, but John Houston encouraged him to work in the studio. When rockabilly star Ronnie Hawkins (along with drummer Levon Helm and other future members of The Band) needed an extra voice, Sissy 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 a part of them. “I was in the world, but I was not of the world, as St. Paul said,” Houston wrote on “How Sweet the Sound,” recalling how he soon began working with the Drifters and other singers.

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

Pat Houston Says she is grateful for many valuable lessons from her mother-in-law. He said the family felt “blessed and grateful” that God had given Sissy so many years.

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

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Hillel Italy reports from New York.