Cissy Houston, Grammy-winning singer and mother of Whitney Houston, dead at 91

Cissy Houston, the Grammy award-winning singer who is also the mother of the late Whitney Houston, has died. She was 91.

Cissy passed away on Monday morning at her New Jersey home while under hospice care for Alzheimer’s disease, her daughter-in-law, Pat Houston, told the Associated Press.

The two-time Grammy award winner was surrounded by her family.

“Our hearts are filled with pain and sadness. We lost the matriarch of our family,” Pat said in a statement, adding that her mother’s contributions to music and culture are “unparalleled.”

“Mother Cissy has been a strong and towering figure in our lives. A woman of deep faith and conviction, who cared greatly about family, ministry, and community. Her more than seven-decade career in music and entertainment will remain at the forefront of our hearts.”

Cissy’s singing career began in 1938 when she joined her siblings in the gospel singing group the Drinkard Four.

During Cissy’s time with the group, which was later renamed to The Drinkard Singers, she made her television debut on TV Gospel Time.

Before she was about to give birth to daughter Whitney in 1963, Cissy formed the Sweet Inspirations with Doris Troy and her niece Dee Dee Warrick.

Sylvia Shemwell, Estelle Brown and Myrna Smith then joined the group and they sang backup for several artists, including Otis Redding, Lou Rawls, The Drifters, Dusty Springfield and Cissy’s niece Dionne Warwick.

This story is being updated…