Whitney Houston

Death is the great equalizer, making his job rather uncomplicated. He takes his harvest without regard to social status, color or religion. To Death, there is no distinction, yet to the living, there are some departures that give us pause as we all hurtle towards the inevitable last chapter.

Whitney Houston died yesterday, under cloudy circumstances. We may never know the exact cause and, really, what difference does it make. She is dead.

Whitney Houston was groomed to sing, and her family was there to do the grooming. Cissy Houston, her mother, was a gospel singer and back-up singer who worked with the likes of Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett and Dusty Springfield. Aretha Franklin was the youngster's godmother. Dionne Warwick and Dee Dee Warwick were her cousins.

Signed to Arista, Clive Davis' vision was that Whitney would be the diva that would be his biggest star, and help take his label to the big time. Houston would eventually become Arista's biggest selling recording artist, with sales of 55 million units in the U.S. alone—according to the Recording Industry Association of America. One look at the cover of Houston's first release will give you Clive's vision.

However, it was the release of her second album, where she shed the gowns and big production, to become the darling of the MTV era by showing the loose and exuberant side of her personality.

With a cover girl looks, million watt smile and a voice that would make even the mundane American National Anthem a signature song for her, Houston had arrived.

Houston's public persona then veered into something darker and volatile. Her relationship with Bobby Brown was seen as the point where she had to acknowledge that she was into drugs, and her appearance and the drug's impact on her voice was like rubbernecking at a train wreck. It became fodder for the tabloids and entertainment shows for years. "I am not always in a sequined gown. I am nobody's angel," she once told Rolling Stone. "I can get down and dirty. I can get raunchy."

Houston divorced Brown in 2007, winning custody of their daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown. At the court session in Orange County, Houston testified that her daughter could not depend on her father.

Bobbi Kristina will have to now.

Whitney Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012)