Emily “Cissy” Houston
(September 30, 1933 – October 7, 2024) was an American pop singer of the 1960s and a two-time Grammy Award winner.
Cissy Houston was born on September 30, 1933, into a large family. She was the youngest of eight children in the family of Nicholas Drinkard and Delia Mae McCaskill.
In 1963, after the birth of her daughter Whitney, she created the quartet “Sweet Inspirations” together with Sylvia Shemwell, Estelle Brown and Myrna Smith.
In the 1960s, they successfully performed as backup singers for “Redding”, “The Drifters”, Dusty Springfield, Jimi Hendrix and Van Morrison.
Elvis Presley once invited the quartet to sing during his concerts in Las Vegas. After these shows, Houston said: “We jammed with him for an hour, singing gospel songs. He really enjoyed it, he had a good feel for the music, and it was nice to have four ‘church sisters’ to support him.”
As a token of his appreciation, Elvis gave Cissy Houston a bracelet with his name engraved on the outside and her pet name, Squirelly, engraved on the inside.
Houston performed with Presley from 1966 to 1969, and then decided to focus on her solo career.
She was awarded Grammy Awards in 1996 and 1998. Cissy’s daughter Whitney Houston starred in some of her videos.
Unfortunately, Cissy’s daughter, the famous Whitney Houston, passed away in 2012, and a few years later her grandchildren, too. In 2015, Bobbi Kristina Brown, the only daughter of Whitney and her husband Bobby Brown, passed away.
Cissy outlived her husband by 21 years, her daughter by 12 years, and her granddaughter by 9 years old, dying on October 7, 2024 at the age of 91.