The late Cissy Houston was a legendary singer whose career spanned gospel, rock and roll, disco, and R&B. While she is widely recognized as the mother of Whitney Houston and the aunt of Dee Dee Warwick and Dionne Warwick, she also had an impressive solo career that solidified her place in music history.
She died in her New Jersey home while under hospice care for Alzheimer’s disease, surrounded by her loved ones.
Her daughter-in-law, Pat, confirmed her passing, releasing a heartfelt statement: “Our hearts are filled with pain and sadness. We lost the matriarch of our family.”
Her Legacy, Her Estate
As the world mourns her passing — Houston died on October 7 at the age of 91 — she leaves behind a lasting legacy and an estimated net worth between $2 million and $7 million. Her career and contributions to music extend far beyond her familial ties, marking her as a force in her own right.
Born Emily Drinkard, she and her sisters formed a gospel singing group that made waves in the mid-to-late 1950s called The Drinkard Four, later renamed The Drinkard Singers. Outside of singing in church, the group performed regularly at various gospel festivals, and eventually recording a live album titled “A Joyful Noise” under the RCA label.
In 1963, she blew the world away in a dynamic vocal performance on TV Gospel Time, a breakout performance that caught the attention of people outside of the sacred music space.
By the late 1960s, Houston’s career had begun to evolve. In 1969, she became a sought-after background vocalist, singing for major artists like Elvis Presley during his Las Vegas residencies. Her powerful voice also graced records featuring Aretha Franklin, who would go on to become not only a close friend but a godmother figure to Houston’s daughter, Whitney.
Although her exact earnings from her work as a backup singer remain unclear, they were substantial enough for Houston to serve as the primary financial provider for her family while her second husband, John Russell Houston, stayed home while she was on tour to manage the household and raise their children, Gary (by a previous marriage), Michael, and Whitney.
Her voice became a familiar sound behind some of the most famous names in the music industry, including Bette Midler, Linda Ronstadt, Burt Bacharach, and Herbie Mann. In 1970 she released her debut solo album, “Presenting Cissy Houston,” which featured two tracks that made it onto the R&B charts.
She also recorded the original version of “Midnight Train to Georgia,” a song that would later become a No. 1 hit for Gladys Knight & The Pips.
Despite her talent, mainstream commercial success as a solo artist remained elusive. Houston’s contract was eventually sold to James Records, where she continued to release singles until 1975.
Cissy also formed the group the Sweet Inspirations with women from her church.
One of the reasons the singer would have to go back and forth between the sacred and secular was because gospel music did not pay enough for her to survive and care for her family, according to Cissy in the documentary “Sweet Inspiration.”
Despite her solo career not reaching the heights of some of her peers, Cissy remained influential voice in music. For more than 50 years, she led the New Hope Baptist Church Youth Inspirational Choir in Newark, New Jersey, a choir that grew to include over 200 members. She was also a fixture at the annual McDonald’s Gospelfest, a festival that celebrates gospel music’s cultural significance.
Of course, Houston’s later life was deeply intertwined with the meteoric rise of her daughter, Whitney Houston, whose extraordinary talent and global success were largely shaped by her mother’s influence.
Whitney began singing background vocals with her mother as a teenager, even appearing on Chaka Khan’s 1980 album “Naughty,” lending her voice to songs like “Clouds” and “Our Love’s in Danger.” This early experience helped pave the way for Whitney’s solo career, where she would go on to become one of the best-selling artists of all time, with over 200 million records sold worldwide.
When Whitney passed away in 2012, she left her $20 million estate to her daughter, Bobbi Kristina, who also died tragically in 2015. After Bobbi Kristina’s passing, Cissy and her two sons inherited Whitney’s estate, according to USA Today.
Although Cissy was initially named the executor of Whitney’s will, she eventually stepped down and handed over the role to Whitney’s sister-in-law and former manager, Marion “Pat” Houston. Pat would later sell 50 percent of her musical assets in a business transaction to Primary Wave Music, according to Variety, which positioned it to quadruple in earning power within three years.
