Cissy Houston, the Grammy-winning singer and mother of the late Whitney Houston, has died. She was 91.
Her rep told in a statement that Cissy passed at 10:30 a.m. at her home in Newark, N.J., “while under hospice care for Alzheimer’s disease.”
At the time of her death, the two-time Grammy award winner was surrounded by family.
“Our hearts are filled with pain and sadness. We lost the matriarch of our family,” her daughter-in-law Pat Houston said in a statement, adding that her mother-in-law’s contributions to music and culture 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.”
Cissy’s singing career began in 1938 when she joined her siblings in a gospel singing group called The Drinkard Four.
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During Cissy’s time with the group, later renamed The Drinkard Singers, she made her television debut on TV Gospel Time.
Before giving birth to daughter Whitney in 1963, Cissy formed The Sweet Inspirations with Doris Troy and her niece Dee Dee Warrick.
Sylvia Shemwell, Estelle Brown and Myrna Smith then joined the group and sang backup for several artists, including Otis Redding, Lou Rawls, The Drifters, Dusty Springfield and Cissy’s niece Dionne Warwick.
Cissy also had a successful solo career, winning two Grammys for her albums “Face to Face” in 1996 and “He Leadeth Me” in 1998.
In February 2012, Cissy faced heartbreak when her daughter, Whitney, was found unconscious in the bathtub of her Beverly Hilton hotel suite and was pronounced dead soon after. She was 48.
The coroner later revealed the “I Will Always Love You” singer had accidentally drowned, listing heart disease and cocaine use as contributing factors.
Cissy leaves behind her sons, Micheal Houston and Gary Garland.
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