Mom's Minute

Whitney Houston, August 9, 1963 - February 11, 2012

Whitney Houston, whose incredible voice reached never before heard of ranges, has died.  Whitney Houston was found in her Beverly Hills, California hotel by her bodyguard.

After 20 minutes of CPR by the medical technicians, sadly, she was unable to be resuscitated.  Whitney Houston passed away at 3:55 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on Saturday, February 11, 2012. An exact cause of her death has not been reported.  She was 48 years old.

Whitney Houston was born on August 9, 1963 in Newark, New Jersey and was the daughter of soul and gospel singer Cissy Houston.  She was the cousin of Dionne Warrick, an award winning singer and the goddaughter of soul singer Aretha Franklin.

She started singing at 11 years of age alongside her mother in church.  She performed as a back- up singer before branching into modeling.  As a model, Whitney Houston became the first African-American woman to grace the cover of Seventeen Magazine.  Picture layouts in other magazines followed.

While she was performing with her mother at a nightclub in the New York area, she was spotted by a record label representative, who introduced her to Clive Davis, the head of Arista Records.

It was not long after joining Arista Records  that her singing career began to soar. She would soon become one of music industry's best selling music artists selling over 170 million albums, singles and videos worldwide. She was named in 2009 by the Guiness Book of World Records as the most-awarded female act of all time.

The single that put Whitney Houston on the record books not only because of her magnificent voice, but  because of  the song's widespread popularity, was her deeply, emotional singing of  Dolly Parton's song, "I Will Always Love You", from the Bodyguard soundtrack (pictured below), a movie in which she also starred in.

Whitney Houston starred in The Bodyguard in 1992 that showed off her acting talent.

The Bodyguard's soundtrack with lead single "I Will Always Love You," won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1994, and became the best selling song by a female artist in music history. The key driver of the song's success was the magistic voice of Whitney Houston.

She starred in other movies following The Bodyguard, which included Waiting to Exhale in 1995, The Preacher's Wife in 1996, and Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella in 1997.

Due to Whitney's Houston stunning performance in singing the Star Bangled Banner at Super Bowl XXV in 1991 -- as well as the public's adoration of her rendition, the song was released as a commercial single/video and reached the top 20 of the US Hot 100. She became the only artist to have the National Anthem become a pop hit of this successful magnitude.

 As a true humanitarian, Whitney Houston donated all the proceeds from the sell of the single to The American Red Cross Crisis Fund.

Whitney Houston, Legendary singer, actress, producer and model

Celebrated Whitney Houston's awards include 6 Grammys, 30 Billboard Music Awards, 2 Emmys, 22 American Music Awards, as well as a total of 415 career awards.

As part of her comeback, she starred in the movie Sparkle, which is currently scheduled to be released in the summer of 2012.

Whitney Houston fought a much publicized battle with drugs and alcohol, and talked about her struggle in a 2002 television interview with Diane Sawyer and the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2009.   In May, 2011, one of her representatives reported she was getting help.

At the news of Whitney Houston's passing on the eve of the 2012 Grammy awards, there was an outpouring of shock and sadness from her fans as well as  the celebrity community.   Whitney Houston had just performed Thursday night, February 9, 2012 at a pre-Grammy Event.

In the words of singer Lionel Richie, Whitney Houston's voice could turn a story, a melody into magical notes.

Whitney Houston survivals include her daughter, Bobby Kristina Brown and her mother Cissy Houston.

Mom's Minute sends Whitney Houston's family heartfelt sympathy.

Whitney Houston's untimely death is truly a deep loss.