Cissy Houston, Grammy-winning singer and mother of Whitney Houston, has died at the age of 91

CNN
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Cissy Houston, Grammy-winning singer and mother of Whitney Houston, has died, according to Gwendolyn Quinn, a representative for The Estate of Whitney E. Houston. She was 91.

According to a statement, the singer was surrounded by her family when she passed away at 10:30 a.m. ET on Monday while receiving hospice care. She suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, the statement said.

“Our hearts are full of pain and sadness. We are losing the matriarch of our family,” said her daughter-in-law Pat Houston. “Mother Cissy was a strong and prominent figure in our lives. A woman of deep faith and conviction who cared deeply about family, service and community. Her career spanning more than seven decades in the music and entertainment industry will continue to be close to our hearts.”

Her daughter-in-law added: “Her contributions to popular music and culture are unparalleled.”

Cissy Houston was born Emily Drinkard and was the youngest of eight children of the late Nitcholas and Delia Mae Drinkard, according to a biography provided by the family.

Houston was educated in the Newark Public School system and attended New Hope Baptist Church, where she later became minister of church music.

In 1938, when she was 5, Houston began her singing career when she joined her sister Anne and brothers Larry and Nicky in the gospel group The Drinkard Four, the biography says.

Her sisters Lee and Marie later joined the group, which was renamed The Drinkard Singers. Anne Drinkard left the group and was replaced by Lee’s adopted daughter Judy Clay.

Throughout the group’s lifespan, members included future stars Dee Dee Warwick and Dionne Warwick, Houston’s nieces.

They performed at Carnegie Hall and the Newport Jazz Festival in Newport, Rhode Island in 1957 and recorded their first live gospel album, A Joyful Noise, at Webster Hall in New York City. It was released in 1959 on RCA Records, making it one of the first times a gospel group released an album on a major record label.

In 1963, Cissy Houston formed the original line-up of The Sweet Inspirations with the remaining members of the Drinkard Sisters, providing backing vocals for several artists throughout the ’60s, including Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, Esther Phillips, Lou Rawls, Otis Redding, Solomon Burke, The Drifters and Wilson Pickett.

In 1969 she released her first solo LP, Presenting Cissy Houston.

A two-time Grammy Award-winning recording artist, Houston led a successful career as a solo and performing artist, recording ten solo albums, four compilation albums and five collaborative recordings.

As a premier backup singer, she recorded and performed with a wide range of artists across genres, including Franklin, Bette Midler, Beyoncé, Burt Bacharach, Carly Simon, Chaka Khan, David Bowie, Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix and many others daughter Whitney Houston, among many others.

Whitney Houston died in 2012 at the age of 48.

According to her biography, Cissy Houston was also the mother of sons Gary and Michael and the grandmother of her several grandchildren. Her granddaughter Bobbie Kristina Brown died three years after her mother Whitney at the age of 22.

“We are blessed and grateful that God allowed her to spend so many years with us and we are grateful for all the many valuable life lessons she taught us,” added Pat Houston’s statement from Cissy Houston on Monday added. “May she rest in peace alongside her daughter Whitney and granddaughter Bobbi Kristina and other treasured family members.”

This story is developing and will be updated with additional information.