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Cissy Houston (Emily Drinkard)

(September 30, 1933 – October 7, 2024)

Cissy Houston was the mother of the late Whitney Houston.
She was a gospel singer in her own right and worked in vocal
groups,The Drinkard Singers and The Sweet Inspirations,

in the latter of which she was a founding member . She
was the aunt of singers Dionne Warwick and
Dee Dee Warwick, and a cousin of opera singer
Leontyne Price.

Cissy was the eighth and final child of her
parents, Nitcholas "Nitch" Drinkard and Delia

Mae Drinkard (née McCaskill). Initially, the
family had lived in Blakely, Georgia, but moved
to New Jersey during what is called the Great

Migration.

Cissy’s parents insisted that their children be
educated and brought up in the church. Nitch

insisted that the family all should sing.

When Cissy was five, her mother 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.

The Sweet Inspirations appeared on Van
Morrison's single ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ and Cissy
supplied descant vocal on the Aretha Franklin
hit ‘Ain't No Way’. In 1967, The Sweet

Inspirations sang background vocals for The
Jimi Hendrix Experience on the track ‘Burning
of the Midnight Lamp’.

In 1969, the group were hired to sing backing vocals for Elvis Presley in Las Vegas
on his return to live performances during July and August of that year.

Cissy worked as a backup singer for a large number of artists, including Bette Midler,
Linda Ronstadt, Burt Bacharach, Herbie Mann, Roy Hamilton, Dionne Warwick,
Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan and on JJ Cale's “Cajun Moon’” and “Easter Rising”. In

addition she was choirmaster of the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey.

Cissy won two Grammy Awards in the Traditional Gospel Album category.

Ian K McKenzie