Whitney Houston never forgot New Jersey roots
Whitney Houston was a child of New Jersey. Newark Mayor Cory Booker said today that Houston went from a Newark church to the global stage, but she always remained a deep part of the city's pride and collective heart.
CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller reports that Michele Richardson lived down the block from Whitney Houston in East Orange, New Jersey. She says their childhood together seems like yesterday.
"I'm still at the state that I didn't believe it. Like I really want someone to say it didn't happen," Richardson says.
All were welcome in the Houston home, she says, where gospel-singing Cissy and her husband, John, raised four children in a strict but loving household.
"She's wasn't one of these celebrities that blew up and forgot where she came from," Richardson says.
"Everyone in the neighborhood would just come, jump in the pool, turn into a barbeque," says Rolando Tune, a neighbor who was not alone in knowing her only by a childhood nickname at first.
"Nippy is all I knew, you know. I never knew 'Whitney' until she made that first big album," says Crockett Tune.
Special section, Whitney Houston: Death of a pop divaAutopsy on Whitney Houston to begin Sunday
Watch: Whitney's final performance
When Houston made it big, the town "renamed" its elementary school after her, in 1997. But it was a few miles away, in Newark, where Houston first found her voice in the choir at New Hope Baptist Church. Some say she had a voice like an angel as a child.
It was a voice childhood friend Tracy Munford witnessed in action at Houston's first club date in New York City.
"She sounded liked like a grown woman. She turned the place out," Munford says.
Munford also attended what was supposed to be the struggling star's comeback concert in Central Park three years ago.
"She grabbed my face like this and she kissed me on my forehead. I said to her: 'This concert is not about you singing. It's really about you taking your life back,'" Munford says.
Some say she never really did take her life back.
Harlem's Apollo Theater was quick to show its respect. This was where she filmed her debut album video for "The Greatest Love of All." Tye Woodson, a fan, broke into tears near the theatre after hearing the news.
"I want people to remember her music, her legacy. And no one can ever take that away from her, and she will always be dignified as one of the true legends of music," Woodson says.
Kishia Burkes and Tridina Dow grew up listening to that music.
"She's gonna be greatly missed by everyone. In the community, and as a whole," Burkes says.
"Gone too soon," Dow says.
Gone, but always remembered in her hometown.
