Stars line up to pay tribute to Houston at funeral

At the service gospel singer Marvin Winans, a long-time family friend, will
give the eulogy. Flags on state government buildings will fly at half mast
by order of New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who called Houston a “daughter
of New Jersey”.

Police will close down streets for six blocks around the church to stop it
being overrun by fans.

The singer will be buried next to her father John Russell Houston Jr, who died
in 2003, at the Fairview Cemetery in Westfield, New Jersey.

Houston was found dead in a bath in her suite at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in
Los Angeles on the eve of the Grammy Awards last week. She was 48.

A cause of death has yet to be determined but detectives believe she had
consumed prescription drugs, including the anti-anxiety drug Xanax, and
alcohol.

They are investigating whether this caused her death, or whether she
accidentally drowned in the bath.

Hotel guests had reported seeing the singer behaving erratically and she had
been observed drinking heavily in the days before her death, including
ordering drinks by the pool before 10am.

Houston, one of the biggest selling music stars of the 1980s and 1990s, had
seen her career collapse amid years of abuse of crack cocaine and other
drugs and spells in rehab.

Aretha Franklin, Houston’s godmother who the late singer used to call “Aunt
Ree,” said she had believed Houston was past her problems and was ready
for a comeback, which made learning of her death all the more shocking.

The “Queen of Soul” said Houston had “looked fresh, she looked
healthy and she looked gorgeous. And I thought, ‘Yes, she has conquered her
challenges and she’s on the way.'”

Houston got her start as a soloist in the New Hope Baptist Church’s choir at
the age of 11.

Her mother, the gospel singer Cissy Houston, ran the music programme and her
cousin, the Grammy Award winner Dionne Warwick, also sang in the choir.

Houston had retained ties to the church, occasionally going back to sing at
services on Easter Sunday.

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