Whitney Houston laid to rest
Pop star buried in private ceremony at cemetery where her father was interred
NEWARK: Whitney Houston is being laid to rest at a private ceremony in New Jersey.
She was buried yesterday at the cemetery in Westfield where her father was interred in 2003.
Onlookers were gathering along the route to her gravesite as the police-escorted motorcade headed toward it and the hearse carrying her casket entered the cemetery.
Houston died on Feb 11 in California at age 48. No cause of death has been determined.
The pop star was mourned at a funeral on Saturday at the church in Newark where she sang in the choir as a child.
As the strains of her biggest record, I Will Always Love You, filled the New Hope Baptist Church at the end of the nearly four-hour service and her silver-and-gold casket was lifted in the air, the weight of the moment was too much for her mother, gospel singer Cissy Houston, to bear.
As she was held up by two women, she wailed, “My baby! My baby!” as she was led out the church behind her daughter’s body.
A few steps behind her was the pop icon’s daughter, Bobbi Kristina, also crying uncontrollably as she was comforted by Houston’s close friend, singer Ray J.
It was the most searing scene on a day with mixed moods as family, friends and A-list celebrities – sometimes one and the same – came to the humble New Hope Baptist church to remember one of music’s legends, but also a New Jersey hometown girl.
Both sides of Houston were recalled at the service at New Hope, which was filled with about 300 mourners, including Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Forest Whitaker, Jennifer Hudson, Roberta Flack, Chaka Khan, Diane Sawyer and Houston’s cousin, Dionne Warwick.
“You wait for a voice like that for a lifetime,” said music mogul Clive Davis, who shepherded Houston’s career for decades.
Kevin Costner, her co-star in The Bodyguard, said for all of Houston’s beauty and success, she was still yearning for approval from the public - and still somewhat insecure, a superstar who “still wondered, ‘Am I good enough? Am I pretty enough? Will they like me?’”
Fittingly, music played a major role in the send-off to one of music’s greatest voices.
Stevie Wonder rewrote lyrics to Ribbon in the Sky for Houston - “you will always be a ribbon in the sky,” he sang.
R. Kelly brought the New Hope Baptist Church to its feet with a stirring version of I Look to You, the title of Houston’s final studio album.
And Keys, her voice breaking at times, dedicated her song Send Me An Angel, to Houston.
Houston’s ex-husband Bobbi Brown briefly appeared at her funeral, walking to the casket, touching it and walking out.
He later said in a statement that he and his children were asked repeatedly to move and he left rather than risk creating a scene. — AP