Singer Cissy Houston, 91, died on Oct. 7. She began singing with her siblings as the Drinkard Four (her birth name was Emily Drinkard) and the Sweet Inspirations as a child, and was soon performing on records, in churches, as backup to Elvis Presley, and on TV. In the late ’60s, Cissy broke out as a solo artist, while still singing backup for Bette Midler, Linda Ronstadt, and Burt Bacharach. Her daughter, Whitney Houston, began singing backup to her mother, but by the 1980s, the roles were reversed (Cissy's niece was Dionne Warwick, and opera singer Leontyne Price was a cousin). She was the “Minister of Music” at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, and a regular at McDonald’s Gospelfest. “I know I did the best I could,” she said of her daughter’s problems. “I don’t blame myself. She had her ups and downs, but who hasn’t? My children were my whole life, she was very special to me. If I thought I could do something to bring her back, that's exactly what I’d do. But I know that’s impossible.”
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