Emily "Cissy" Houston (née Drinkard; born September 30, 1933) is an American soul and gospel singer. After a successful career singing backup for such artists as Roy Hamilton, Dionne Warwick, Elvis Presley, and Aretha Franklin, Houston embarked on a solo career, winning two Grammy Awards for her work.

Houston is the mother of singer Whitney Houston, an aunt of singers Dionne Warwick and Dee Dee Warwick, and a cousin of opera singer Leontyne Price.

Early life

Born Emily Drinkard in Newark, New Jersey, to Nitcholas "Nitch" Drinkard (1895-1952) and Delia Mae Drinkard (née McCaskill) (1901-1941), she was the eighth and final child; older siblings were brothers William (1918–2003), Hansom (1924–deceased), Nicky (1929–1992), and Larry (1931–2012); and sisters Lee (1920–2005), Marie (1922–2007), and Anne (1927–2003). Houston's father Nitcholas Drinkard was born to Susan Bell (called Delia) Drinkard (née Fuller), of Dutch and African-American descent. His father John Drinkard, Jr., was of Native American descent. The Drinkards had owned a substantial amount of farmland in Blakely, Georgia, at a time when it was unusual for black people to have large landholdings. The asset was gradually depleted as they sold small portions of land over time, to resolve the continued legal troubles of a close relative.

After Houston's three oldest siblings were born, the family relocated to New Jersey during the Great Migration. Her parents emphasized the children getting educated and being involved in the church, and her father encouraged Houston and her siblings to sing. In 1938, five-year-old Cissy's mother Delia suffered a stroke and died of cerebral hemorrhage three years later. Houston's father died of stomach cancer in March 1952 when Houston was 18. Cissy went to live with her older sister Lee and her husband Mancel Warrick. The Warricks had three children: a son, Mancel Warrick Jr. and two daughters Marie Dionne Warrick and Delia Juanita (Dee Dee) Warrick. Renowned soprano Leontyne Price is a Drinkard cousin.

Houston attended South Side High School.

Houston is a Christian, and has said that she "found Christ" at age 14.

Spouses

Children 3; including Gary and Whitney

Personal life

In 1955, Houston married Freddie Garland and had a son, Gary Garland, an NBA basketball player and DePaul University Athletic Hall of Famer. The Garlands divorced shortly before Gary's birth in October 1957.

In the spring of 1958, when she was 24, Houston met John Russell Houston Jr. and embarked on a romance that led to the births of son Michael (born August 14, 1961), a songwriter and road manager, and daughter Whitney (August 9, 1963 - February 11, 2012), who went on to be a world-renowned singer, actress and entertainer. During the early years of the relationship, John was still married to his first wife, Elsie Hamilton. After Houston's first marriage ended in divorce in April 1964, Cissy and John married the following month. John Houston Jr. was a former Army veteran who served his country during World War II and was working as a taxi and truck driver when he met Cissy. He first entered the entertainment business managing his nieces-in-law's vocal group, the Gospelaires, in 1959. After his wife formed The Sweet Inspirations, he served as their manager until Cissy left the group in 1969 to start her solo career. After John survived a near-fatal heart attack in 1976, John and Cissy's marriage turned volatile and by 1977, they agreed to legally separate, though they remained married until 1991. Houston has six grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

In the late 1980s, Whitney Houston began to struggle with drug addiction. Cissy Houston staged several interventions to get her daughter into rehabilitation and recovery programs. On one occasion she obtained a court order and the assistance of two sheriffs to intervene, persuading her daughter to undertake treatment at Hope For Women Residential & Therapeutic Services in Atlanta, Georgia. 

In her 2013 book, Remembering Whitney: My Story of Love, Loss, and the Night the Music Stopped, Cissy Houston described the scene she encountered at her daughter's house in 2005 as follows: "Somebody had spray-painted the walls and door with big glaring eyes and strange faces. Evil eyes, staring out like a threat... In another room there was a big framed photo of [Whitney Houston] — but someone had cut [her] head out. It was beyond disturbing, seeing my daughter's face cut out like that." This visit led Cissy to return with law enforcement and perform an intervention. Her daughter cycled through recovery, relapse and rehabilitation programs.

On February 11, 2012, Whitney Houston died at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. After her daughter's death, in an interview with the New Jersey TV station WWOR, Houston expressed her distaste for the media's coverage of related events: "The media are awful. People have come from here and there, [and they] don't know what they're talking about," she said. "People I haven't seen in 20 years ... Here they come, [they] think they know everything, but that's not true. But God has his way of taking care of all of it, and I'm glad I know that. They really chopped on her, chopped on her ... kept, kept, kept."