Childhood friends react to singer's death

ROUGH CUT - NO REPORTER NARRATION

At the New Jersey church where her singing career first took flight, church members and fans gathered on Sunday (February 12) to celebrate the life of Whitney Houston and mourn her passing a day after she died in a Beverly Hills hotel.

Cards and flowers were tied to the railings of the New Hope Baptist Church and congregation members hugged at the entrance. It was in this large but modest looking, red brick house of worship on a quiet back street near downtown Newark where Houston's career began as a soloist in a gospel choir in the 1970's.

One card read: "Newark loves you and will always love you."

Carla Johnson, who also attended the service, remembered the days when she sang alongside Houston in the church choir.

"She's always been a mentor of mine. We sang together in inspirational choir when I was eight, she was fourteen. And it was shocking. Just shocking. I followed her life, her career, everything," she said, "I've always adored Whitney."

Loreta Baskin who has been a church member here for twenty-four years, said her heart went out to Cissy Houston, Whitney's mother, who still attends this church.

"I reach out to Cissy every Sunday, that I'm here. And it's a sad loss, anybody's child, it's a sad loss," she said.

Wendy Adi-Darko is not a member of this church but she came down especially to attend one of the services in memory of the singer.

"It feels peaceful because this is where it all began. This is where it all ended. They say that her last song was about Jesus. And she's going home. It started with Jesus, and she's going home to Jesus. So it's an amazing thing that she's done, amazing legacy that she's left behind," she said.

While Delroy Souden, a Newark resident, who also came to the church to pay tribute to the late singer, said he hoped that the world would remember her for her music, and not for her battle with drugs and alcohol.

Houston, whose soaring voice lifted her to the top of the pop music world but whose personal decline was fueled by years of drug use, died on Saturday (February 11) afternoon in a hotel room at the Beverly Hilton hotel. She was 48 years old.