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Los Angeles, United States.- Award-winning gospel and soul singer Cissy Houston, mother of the legendary performer Whitney Houston (1963-2012), died this Monday at his home at the age of 91, according to his family.
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The Houston matriarch, who was in palliative care for Alzheimer’s, died surrounded by her loved ones.
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”Our hearts are full of pain and sadness. We lost the matriarch of our family. Mom Cissy has been a strong and imposing figure in our lives,” her daughter-in-law Pat Houston said in a message to the media.
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In his message he referred to the singer – with a career spanning more than seven decades that began in 1938 as a member of the gospel group Drinkard Four, which also included her sister Anne – as a woman “of deep faith and conviction, who “He cared deeply about his family, his congregation and his community.”
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”His career in music and entertainment will remain in our hearts. “His contributions to popular music and culture are unparalleled,” the statement further notes.
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”We feel blessed and grateful that God allowed him to spend so many years with us and for all the valuable life lessons he taught us. May he rest in peace, along with his daughter, Whitney and granddaughter Bobbi Kristina and other beloved family members,” he said.
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In 1963, when she was about to have her daughter Whitney, Cissy Houston formed the group ‘The Sweet Inspirations’ with her niece Dee Dee Warwick and Doris Troy, which provided backing vocals for a variety of soul singers, including Otis Redding, Lou Rawls, The Drifters and Dionne Warwick.
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Dee De and Dionne are the daughters of her sister Anne Lee. His last performance with the group was after they performed with Elvis Presley in Las Vegas in 1969.
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As her children grew up, she chose to end touring to concentrate on her solo career, which she launched in 1970 with the album ‘Introducing Cissy Houston’, under the Commonwealth United Records label. The singer was born in 1933 in the city of Newark, in New Jersey (USA) as Emily Drinkard, the youngest of eight siblings.
Oprah Winfrey entrevista a hija de Whitney Houston
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In 1955 she married Freddie Garland and had a son, Gary Garland, who was an NBA player. They later separated. In 1957 she married again, a relationship that produced Michael, composer and his assistant, and the star Whitney Houston. Hosuton recorded several albums throughout her career, the last, ‘Walk on By Faith’ (2012), of the ‘Face to Face’ (1996) and ‘He Leadeth to me’ (1997) won the Grammy for Best Traditional/Soul/Gospel Album. He also provided backing vocals on hundreds of recordings: ‘The Divine Miss M.’ and Aretha Franklin’s ‘Ain’t No Way’ (1967) and also on Bette Midler’s 1972 debut.
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Her voice can also be heard on albums by Chaka Khan, Diana Ross, David Bowie, Jimmy Hendrix, Paul Simon, Roberta Flack, Beyoncé, Donny Hathaway, Wilson Pickett and many more, highlights Variety magazine.
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In addition to her work as choir director at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey, Cissy frequently performed in New York City clubs in the 1970s and 1980s.
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In the 1990s, he had to face the addiction problem of his daughter Whitney, who died in 2012, and then of his granddaughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown – Whitney’s daughter – in 2015.
