Page 14
The
Portland Observer Black History Month
February 13, 2013
Arts
£>
' V
ENTERTAINMENT
Cissy Houston on ‘Remembering Whitney’
A mother's story of tears, joy, and her greatest love
(A P )— Cissy Houston has a few
In "Remembering Whitney," the
words, and a few more, for Boby mother of the late Whitney Hous-
Brown-
ton writes that from the start she had
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person known affectionately by her
childhood nickname, "Nippy." But
she acknowledges in the book that
her daughter could be "mean" and
"difficult" and questions at times
how well she knew her.
"In my darkest moments, I won-
der whether Nippy loved me," she
writes. "She always told me she did.
But you know, she didn't call me
much. She didn't come see me as
much as I hoped she would."
doubted whether Brown was right
for her daughter. And she thinks
that Whitney might not have ended
up so "deep" into drugs had they
not stayed together.
"I do believe her life would have
turned out differently," Houston
writes. "It would have been easier
for her to get sober and stay sober.
Instead she was with someone who,
like her, w anted to
party. To me, he never
seemed to be a help to
her in the way she
needed."
" R e m e m b e rin g
Whitney" came out last
m onth, tw o w eeks
short of the first anni-
versary of Houston’s C7 ss 7 ho ( ^
death. She drowned in
a hotel bathtub in Beverly Hills,
But, "almost al­
Calif., at age 48. Authorities said her w ay s," W h itn ey
death was complicated by cocaine Houston was "the
use and heart disease.
sweetest, most lov­
Houston said she has no contact ing person in the
with Brown and didn't see any rea­ room."
son to, not even concerning her
Brown is portrayed as childish
granddaughter, Bobbi Kristina. She and impulsive, hot tempered and
reaffirmedhercommentsinthebook jealous of his wife's success. Cissy
that Whitney Houston would have Houston describes a 1997 incident
been better off without him. "How when Whitney sustained a "deep
would you like it if he had anything cut" on her face while on a yacht
to do with your daughter?" she with Brown in the Mediterranean.
asked.
Whitney insisted it was an acci­
Houston said she wanted the dent; Brown had slammed his hand
book published so the world would on a table, breaking a plate. A piece
not believe the worst about her of china flew up and hit Whitney,
daughter. Cissy Houston, herself requiring surgery to cover any pos-
an accomplished soul and gospel sible scar.
singer who has performed with Elvis
The injury was minor, the effects
Presley and Aretha Franklin, de- possibly fateful,
scribes Whitney as a transcendent
"She seemed sadder after that,
talent and vivacious and generous like something had been taken away
from her," Houston writes.
For years, W hitney's drug prob­
lems had been only a rum or to her
m other, who writes that concerns
expressed by record executive
Clive Davis were kept from her by
her daughter and others. But by
2005 she had seen the worst. Hous­
ton rem em bers a horrifying visit
to the Atlanta home o f Brown and
H ouston, where the w alls and
doors were spray-painted with
"b ig
g la rin g
eyes
an d
strange faces."
W hitney's face
h ad b e e n c u t
out
fro m
a
fram ed fam ily
picture, an im ­
age Cissy Hous­
ton found "be­
y o n d d is tu r b ­
ing." The next
tim e H o u s to n
cam e to the
house, she was
jo in e d by tw o
sh eriff's d ep u ­
ties who helped her take W hitney
to the hospital.
• "She was so angry at me, cursing
me and up and down," she writes.
"Eventually, after a good long while,
Nippy did stop being angry at me.
She realized that I did what I did to
protect her, and she later told people
that I had saved her life."
Brown and Whitney Houston
divorced in 2007, after 15 years of
marriage. When she learned that her
daughter was leaving Brown, Cissy
Houston was "extremely relieved"
and "thanking God so much I'm sure
nobody else could get a prayer in to
Him."
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