NEWARK, N.J. – Clapping hands and swaying to gospel hymns in the church where Whitney Houston’s powerful voice once wowed her congregation, some of the biggest names in entertainment sang along with the choir to remember the pop superstar at her hometown funeral Saturday.
“We are here today, hearts broken, but yet with God’s strength we celebrate the life of Whitney Houston,” the Rev. Joe A. Carter told the packed New Hope Baptist Church after the choir behind him sang “The Lord is My Shepherd.”
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Mourners including singer Jennifer Hudson and Houston’s mother, gospel singer Cissy Houston, stood, swayed and clapped along in the aisles. Gospel singers BeBe Winans and the Rev. Kim Burrell joined with pop stars like Alicia Keys in paying tribute to the 48-year-old pop superstar who first began singing in the Newark church.
“You wait for a voice like that for a lifetime,” said music mogul Clive Davis, who shepherded Houston’s career for decades.
The service had lighthearted moments, too — Kevin Costner imagining a young Houston using her winning smile to get out of trouble, Houston’s cousin Dionne Warwick offering short insights about the singer.
Others were more mournful; singer Ray J., who spent time with Houston during her last days, broke down crying. His sister, singer Brandy, put her arm around him. Cissy Houston and Houston’s daughter, 18-year-old Bobbi Kristina, clutched each other. Toward the end of the service, Bobbi Kristina and Ray J. embraced at length and spoke. Others gathered and hugged near the front of the church.
The most powerful moment was reserved for the end. As Houston’s casket was carried out, her hit “I Will Always Love You” played. Bobbi Kristina began crying, and the sobs of Houston’s mother rang throughout the church. “My baby!” she wailed.
Stevie Wonder and Oprah Winfrey were among the mourners, along with Hudson, Monica, Brandy and Jordin Sparks — representing a generation of big-voiced young singers who grew up emulating her.
Costner, her co-star in “The Bodyguard,” remembered a movie star who was uncertain of her own fame, who “still wondered, ‘Am I good enough? Am I pretty enough? Will they like me?’“
“It was the burden that made her great and the part that caused her to stumble in the end,” Costner said.
Warwick presided over the funeral, introducing speakers and singers.
Houston’s ex-husband, Bobby Brown, briefly appeared at her funeral, walking to the casket, touching it and walking out. He later said in a statement that he and his children were asked repeatedly to move and he left rather than risk creating a scene.
Close family friend Aretha Franklin, whom Houston lovingly called “Aunt Ree,” had been expected to sing at the service, but she was too ill to attend. Franklin said in an email to The Associated Press that she had been up most of the night with leg spasms and sent best wishes to the family. “May God bless and keep them all,” she wrote.
A program featuring a picture of Houston looking skyward read “Celebrating the life of Whitney Elizabeth Houston, a child of God.” Pictures of Houston as a baby, and with her mother and daughter filled the program.
“I never told you that when you were born, the Holy Spirit told me that you would not be with me long,” Cissy Houston wrote her daughter in a letter published in the program. “And I thank God for the beautiful flower he allowed me to raise and cherish for 48 years.”
“Rest, my baby girl in peace,” the letter ends, signed “mommie.”
The service came a week after Houston was found dead in a Beverly Hills hotel in California A cause of death has yet to be determined.
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