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Cissy Houston is an American soul and gospel singer. She won two Grammy awards for solo gospel albums. She was also a part of her family's gospel groups the Drinkard Quartet and the Drinkard Singers, as well as the group Sweet Inspirations which released several of their own albums and did back-up vocals for many star musicians.[1]
Emily "Cissy" Houston was born on September 30th, 1933 in Newark, New Jersey. She is the daughter of Nicholas Arthur Drinkard and Delia Mae McCaskill. She was the youngest of seven siblings: William Drinkard, Arthur Lee (Drinkard) Warwick, Marie (Drinkard) Epps, Handsome Drinkard, Annie (Drinkard) Moss, Nicholas Drinkard Jr, and Larry Drinkard.[2] She is the aunt of singers Delia "Dee Dee" Warwick and Dionne Warrick, who are daughters of Cissy's sister Lee. She has written about her own life and her family in her books How Sweet the Sound: My Life with God and Gospel (1998) and Remembering Whitney: My Story of Love, Loss, and the Night the Music Stopped, (2013).[3][4]
Cissy married Freddy Garland in the 1950's. They had one son and Cissy left Freddy two years after their marriage.[5]
Cissy met John Houston in 1958. He was separated, but still married at the time. They moved in together soon after and had two children by the time John's divorce was finalized and they were able to marry in 1964. Their youngest daughter is singer Whitney Houston.[6] John filed for divorce in 1991 after several years of separation.[7]
Cissy's music career began when she and her siblings started singing gospel when she was just five years old. They continued performing together through the 1940's and 1950's . They originally performed as the The Drinkard Quartet, later called the Drinkard Singers. In the 1960's Cissy began doing session work as a background singer and in 1967 she formed the group Sweet Inspirations with lvia Shemwell, Estelle Brown and Myrna Smith. They recorded and performed backup vocals for many noted singers, including Aretha Franklin and Elvis Presley, as well as recording their own music. Cissy later had a solo career, winning two Grammy awards for Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album for her albums Face to Face and He Leadeth Me. She's also been the director of music at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey for decades.[8][9]
This week's featured connections are Redheads: Cissy is 27 degrees from Catherine of Aragón, 29 degrees from Clara Bow, 39 degrees from Julia Gillard, 29 degrees from Nancy Hart, 26 degrees from Rutherford Hayes, 29 degrees from Rita Hayworth, 31 degrees from Leonard Kelly, 34 degrees from Rose Leslie, 32 degrees from Damian Lewis, 32 degrees from Maureen O'Hara, 37 degrees from Jopie Schaft and 47 degrees from Eirik Thorvaldsson on our single family tree. Login to see how you relate to 33 million family members.
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Categories: Gospel Singers | Grammy Award Winners of the 20th Century | American Singers | Newark, New Jersey | US Black Heritage Project Managed Profiles | African-American Notables | Notables