Many of Whitney Houston’s career highlights coincided with her time in Atlanta, but so did her decline.
“Whitney made me feel like family, and I am blessed that I had the opportunity to make the acquaintance of the woman that will go down in history as one of the best of our time,” Grammy-winning R&B artist Kandi Burruss, who co-wrote “Tell Me No,” a song from Houston’s 2002 “Just Whitney” album, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution via email Saturday night.
Houston, 48, was discovered in a Beverly Hills hotel bathtub Saturday, the day before the Grammy Awards. The Los Angeles County coroner’s office has not released a cause of death, but police say Houston was found underwater and unconscious. Authorities say there were no indications of foul play and that they will wait for toxicology results from the coroner’s office, which could take weeks.
Houston’s musical accomplishments are unquestionable. The six-time Grammy winner will always be identified by her smash ballads “The Greatest Love of All” and her version of “I Will Always Love You,” and is the only artist to have achieved a string of seven consecutive No. 1 hits, as she did during her mid-’80s career pinnacle. She has sold more than 55 million albums in the U.S. and was crowned the top-selling R&B female artist of the 20th century by the Recording Industry Association of America.
But Houston’s role in the Atlanta-based reality show “Being Bobby Brown,” starring her former husband, gave viewers a glimpse at the tumultuous union that ended in 2007.
It hardly seemed surprising when, a few months before she died, Houston made headlines in Atlanta when she reportedly caused a disturbance on an airplane. But the New Jersey native who lived here for years made far more favorable impressions on her adopted hometown, too. A local pastor who worked with her on a movie remembers her fondly, and when she showed up at a Buckhead event once to support a fellow artist, Houston made one simple request — a cup of coffee.
Whitney the Diva and Whitney the Darling both called Atlanta home over the years. Early news reports suggested the singer’s remains would be transported here for burial, but more recent information from news agencies say she’ll be laid to rest in Newark, N.J., sometime later this week.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a close friend of the Houston family, was in Newark on Sunday meeting with Houston’s mother, gospel singer Cissy Houston.
“She is a woman of strong faith, and she has wrestled with her daughter for a long time,” Jackson told the AJC. “She was under the impression that Whitney was coming out of it. She is completely stunned.”
Pastor Kenneth Paden of Living Word Church of God in Christ in Forest Park worked with Houston on the 1996 movie “The Preacher’s Wife.” Paden wrote the song “Hold On, Help Is on the Way,” which is featured in the movie, and he accompanied Houston on the piano during performances for the film.
“It was wonderful. I can’t even describe it,” said Paden, who was at that time the music director of the Georgia Mass Choir, a Macon-based group also in the film.
"We took about 35 choir members and five band members and went to New Jersey to film the movie," Paden said. "We were there for about five-and-a-half weeks, with Whitney Houston every single day. She was an absolute joy to work with."
"Once we finished taping the song we couldn't stop," Paden said. "She said, 'You can't stop the spirit,' and we went on for about 15 or 20 more minutes. We were having church on the set, pretty much led by Whitney Houston."
About a year ago Peter Conlon, president of Live Nation Atlanta, looked into booking the singer at the Fox Theatre. But negative publicity based on her previous touring overseas — she was booed during shows in London and Sydney in April 2010 — convinced him that it wasn’t worth the risk.
But he added, “You hate seeing anyone with that kind of talent go.”
Staff writers Melissa Ruggieri and Ernie Suggs contributed to this article.
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