Background and career
Emily Lee "Cissy" Houston (née Drinkard; September 30, 1933 – October 7, 2024) was an American soul and gospel singer and choir director. Nicknamed The Duchess of Gospel, she is best known as the mother of American singer and actress Whitney Houston and the aunt of American singers Dionne Warwick and Dee Dee Warwick. Born and raised in Newark, New Jersey, Houston began her singing career as the founding member of the family gospel group the Drinkard Singers, starting at the age of five. The group turned professional in 1951 and would continue performing until the early 1960s as Houston began a career as a session vocalist for several artists. In 1967, she formed the Sweet Inspirations, a Grammy-nominated girl group that backed Aretha Franklin and Elvis Presley before starting a full fledged solo career in 1970. Her best-known solo singles include the top 20 R&B chart single, "I'll Be There", the original rendition of "Midnight Train to Georgia" and the top 5 dance single, "Think It Over". Her solo career culminated with two Grammy Award wins, both in the Traditional Gospel Album category. Houston was honored by several institutions over her career. In 1990, she received the Stellar Award of Excellence for her contributions to gospel music. Five years later, in 1995, Houston earned the Rhythm and Blues Foundation Pioneer Award for her contributions to rhythm and blues and soul music. With the Sweet Inspirations, Houston was inducted into the National Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame in 2014. In 2020, she was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame. In 2025, Houston was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame Missouri in St. Louis, Missouri.
Emily Lee Drinkard was born on September 30, 1933 at City Hospital in Newark, New Jersey to Delia Mae "Dee Dee" (née McCaskill) and Nicholas “Nitch” Drinkard, the youngest of eight children. Houston was the granddaughter of a black landowner in Blakely, Georgia, who later shared the land he owned with Houston's father Nitch during 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, which later led to the entire family relocating to Newark during the Great Migration a decade before Houston's birth. Houston stated that she possessed some Dutch and Native American ancestry due to her grandparents Susan Bell (née Fuller) and John Drinkard Jr., respectively. The Drinkards first settled at an apartment in a three-story tenement at Newark's 199 Court Street, located at the city's Third Ward projects. After a flash fire destroyed the building, they relocated to 38 Hillside Place. Houston's parents placed a high priority upon their children's education and church involvement. Around the time of Houston's fifth birthday in September 1938, her mother Delia suffered a stroke. To help her recovery, and to lift the family's spirits, Houston's father encouraged her and her elder siblings Anne, Nicholas Jr. ("Nicky") and Larry to sing sacred hymns. Later, the siblings formed the Drinkard Four and sang jubilees in various churches, including their own St. Luke's A.M.E. Church. The experience, Houston said, ended her "carefree childhood". Houston later told Rolling Stone in 1978: "I used to get so mad. We'd be out playing in the sun with the other kids and my older sister, Marie, would make us come in for rehearsal." Three years later, in May 1941, Delia Drinkard died of a cerebral hemorrhage after suffering a fatal seizure in her bed; Houston was just seven at the time of her mother's death. Houston stated that she "found Christ" after listening to a sermon at the age of fourteen. Nitch Drinkard died of stomach cancer four years later in March 1952 when Houston was 18. For a time, Houston went to live with her older sister Lee and her husband Mancel Warrick and helped to raise her two nieces, Dionne and Dee Dee, and her nephew Mancel Jr. before moving to an apartment on Newark's Eighth Street. Soprano Leontyne Price is a Drinkard cousin. Houston attended South Side High School in Newark, graduating there in 1952. Following her father's death, Houston worked at RCA Electronics until 1961. Raised Methodist Episcopal, Houston shifted to the Baptist denomination after she joined the New Hope Baptist Church at around age 19, where she became minister of music and would continue to do so for over the next 50 years.
Houston first began singing in the sibling jubilee quartet, the Drinkard Four, at the age of five. A little while later, they changed the name to the Drinkard Jubilairs and then, after the inclusions of sisters Lee and Marie ("Reebie") by 1943, the Drinkard Singers. Houston contended in both her 1998 memoirs, How Sweet the Sound: My Life with God and Gospel and her 2013 book, Remembering Whitney: A Mother's Story of Love, Loss and the Night the Music Died, that the group didn't sing professionally until radio announcer Joe Bostic hired them to open for Clara Ward and Mahalia Jackson at the first ever gospel showcase, named the "Negro Gospel and Religious Music Festival" at Carnegie Hall in October 1951. Not long after that, the group sang on Bostic's Gospel Train New York radio show, becoming regulars on the program. During this period, the group recorded several singles for Savoy Records and toured at various churches throughout the Eastern Seaboard. During this time, Houston was romantically involved with Sam Cooke, then lead singer of the Soul Stirrers and the two were even engaged at one point but eventually Houston broke it off because Cooke was "wild". In October 1957, the group, which now included Judy Clay, joined Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Mahalia Jackson as one of several gospel acts to perform at the Newport Jazz Festival, leading to appearances on a live album recorded at the festival that year. Shortly after the Newport performance, they landed a recording deal with RCA Victor Records where they recorded and released the album, A Joyful Noise, in 1958, which made history as one of the first gospel albums to be released on a major label. By the early 1960s, the group landed on the Sunday morning television gospel show, TV Gospel Time. By the end of 1963, however, the group had permanently split due to the other Drinkard members settling with their families and Houston's growing career as a session vocalist for secular recording artists.
By the early 1960s, Houston's nieces Dionne and Dee Dee, Sylvia Shemwell and their close friend Doris Troy had found success under the group the Gospelaires, singing background for various artists including the Drifters. One night, around September 1961, when Dionne Warrick began working with producer Burt Bacharach, Houston's then-boyfriend, John Houston Jr., who managed the Gospelaires, convinced Houston to replace Dionne in a recording session for Canadian-American rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins. After John Houston showed her the money she had made from the session, Houston was convinced to begin a professional singing career as a session vocalist and quit working at RCA Electronics. The group soon found themselves singing for artists such as Solomon Burke, Ben E. King and the Drifters. Dionne Warrick (who later changed her last name to Warwick) and Doris Troy soon departed from the group and Houston recruited Myrna Smith to be Troy's replacement. This lineup backed Warwick and Troy on their solo hits, such as "Don't Make Me Over" and "Just One Look". In 1963, Houston and her nieces Dionne and Dee Dee sang background on Kai Winding's original rendition of "Time Is On My Side". Estelle Brown, then aged 19, joined the group in 1965 after Dee Dee embarked on a solo career. During this busy period, the group backed several acts such as Garnet Mimms, Solomon Burke, Wilson Pickett and Jackie DeShannon. In 1967, the group was hired to back Irish soul singer Van Morrison on his composition, "Brown Eyed Girl", in 1967. After the song hit the top ten that year, Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records offered the group a recording contract of their own and advised them to change their name from "The Group" to "the Inspirations". Only after learning that another group had that name, Wexler added "Sweet" in front of their name. Following the release of their first single, the group began touring the Chitlin' Circuit. Their first album, The Sweet Inspirations, charted, reaching number 90 on the Billboard 200 and number 12 on the Billboard Best-Selling R&B Albums chart, producing three Billboard Hot 100 singles, including "Sweet Inspiration", which reached number 18 on the Hot 100 and number 5 on the Best Selling R&B Singles chart and later earned the group a Grammy Award nomination for Best Rhythm & Blues Performance by a Duo or Group at the 11th Annual Grammy Awards in 1969. During this period, they backed up Aretha Franklin on a series of hit singles such as "Think", "(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman", "(Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You've Been Gone" and "Ain't No Way", the latter of which would feature Houston's descant in the background. The group would also back Franklin during her concerts of this period and also occasionally appeared on TV with Franklin as they did on The Jonathan Winters Show. In addition, the group backed psychedelic rocker Jimi Hendrix on his song, "Burning of the Midnight Lamp", which was later featured on Hendrix's final studio album during his lifetime, Electric Ladyland and would also back up more artists such as Otis Redding, Lou Rawls and Dusty Springfield. In July 1969, the group was hired to back up Elvis Presley on the rocker's first live performances in almost a decade at the International Hotel. Presley often introduced them at the shows by saying, "They really live up to their name, ladies & gentlemen: The Sweet Inspirations!" The original Sweet Inspirations with Houston could be heard on the Presley live albums, All Shook Up and Live in Las Vegas. By September 1969, Houston had grown tired of performing on the road as her three children were growing up. That month, she decided to quit the Sweet Inspirations and stop touring to stay at home while also settling on a solo career. Houston would continue to mentor the remaining members at her home in East Orange, New Jersey and occasionally reunite with them during recording sessions, usually backing Franklin, who was by now a family friend and considered an honorary aunt to Houston's three children, all of whom affectionately nicknamed her "Aunt Ree".
Houston first recorded solo in 1963, cutting her first solo R&B record, "This Is My Vow" on M'n'M Records under the name Cecily Blair. Three years later, in a one-off deal with Congress Records, she released the single "Bring Him Back" b/w "World Of Broken Hearts" (1966). Her final 1960s solo single before recording with the Sweet Inspirations was "Don't Come Running To Me" b/w "One Broken Heart For Sale" released on Kapp Records in 1967. On most of these early singles, her name is spelled as "Sissie Houston". In 1970, Houston signed a recording contract with Commonwealth United Records and recorded her solo debut LP Presenting Cissy Houston which was released in 1970. It contained several well received singles, including covers of "I'll Be There" and "Be My Baby", both of which made the Billboard R&B charts as well as the Billboard Hot 100. Following the release of the album, Houston's contract was sold to Janus Records. She recorded another album and several more singles in the early 1970s, which included the original recording of Jim Weatherly's "Midnight Train to Georgia" in 1972, which was a minor hit for Houston, and later became a number one hit for Gladys Knight & the Pips. Starting around 1973, Houston began regularly performing all over Manhattan's jazz and cabaret clubs, headlining at venues such as Sweetwaters, Fat Tuesday, Reno Sweeney, Seventh Avenue South and Mikell's and would regularly perform at the venues up until the mid-1980s. Houston continued to record with Janus Records until 1975. In 1976, Houston was featured in Gospel Fuse, a gospel opera composed by Carman Moore and performed with the San Francisco Symphony orchestra, conducted by Seiji Ozawa. In 1977, Houston was signed by Private Stock Records, working with Michael Zager on three albums. The first, a self-titled effort produced two modest hits, including a soulful, gospel-influenced rendition of "Tomorrow". The second included her big disco hit "Think It Over", which climbed to number 32 on the Billboard Hot Selling Soul Singles chart in 1979 and number 5 on the same magazine's Disco Action Top 80 chart. The song was later successfully covered by singer Jennifer Holliday in 2000; Holliday's version topped the same chart, making her and daughter Whitney the only mother and daughter to have number one dance hits as a songwriter. The success of "Think It Over" gave Houston a strong and loyal gay following. Houston's daughter Whitney, who began backing her mother during Houston's performances in this period, later recalled to the LGBTQ publication, Out:
"My mother's best, most beautiful, brightest audience was gay men. We used to work at Reno Sweeney [a trendsetting, '70s Manhattan cabaret]. My mother used to pack that club out. I mean, the queens would be around the corner! Around the corner in a line, waiting to see Miss Cissy. I watched the way my mother dealt with gay people. They could tell her anything and she wouldn't trip. She'd be like [adopting a sassy, worldly voice] 'If so-and-so don't treat you right, fuck 'em. Leave 'em and move on to the next thang.' It was about relationships and loving each other. My mother was an inspiring singer. She sang from her heart about love, the tragedies, the ups, downs, the all-arounds of love, and she somehow made you feel like you'd come out triumphant, no matter what. This had a strong hold for gay people. She'd come out in her slippers and sing. They'd love that. 'Sing, Miss Cissy!' She was real." That same year, Houston represented the United States at the World Popular Song Festival in Tokyo, Japan with the song, "You're the Fire", landing second place during its Grand Prix contest behind Bonnie Tyler and winning the "Most Outstanding Performance Award". The song later appeared on her 1980 disco-flavored album, Step Aside for a Lady, again produced by Zager, but released on Columbia Records after Private Stock had folded (the same album was released on EMI in the United Kingdom).
