Answers sought in Houston's death
LOS ANGELES -- Investigators worked Sunday to piece together what killed Whitney Houston as the music industry's biggest names prepared for a Grammy Awards that undoubtedly will feel as much like a memorial as a celebration.
Houston's body arrived at the morgue early Sunday, and an autopsy could shed some light on how Houston died while in a room at the Beverly Hills Hilton on Saturday afternoon. An official determination of her cause of death likely will take weeks while investigators await the results of toxicology tests.
Beverly Hills Police Lt. Mark Rosen said there were no signs of foul play when Houston was found by a member of her entourage. Paramedics worked to revive Houston, but were unsuccessful and the singer was pronounced dead shortly before 4 p.m. He said he could not comment on the condition of Houston's room or where she had been found.
Houston's daughter was taken by ambulance to a Los Angeles hospital Sunday morning and later released. A source close to the family who did not want to speak given the sensitivity of the matter said she was treated and released for stress and anxiety. Bobbi Kristina Brown, 18, who is Houston's daughter from her marriage to singer Bobby Brown, had accompanied her mother to several pre-Grammy Awards events last week.
"At this time, we ask for privacy, especially for my daughter, Bobbi Kristina," Bobby Brown wrote in a statement released about an hour after she was transported from the hotel. "I appreciate all of the condolences that have been directed towards my family and I at this most difficult time."
Sunday's Grammys were to feature a musical tribute to Houston by Jennifer Hudson, and the show was likely to feature remembrances from fellow musicians on the red carpet and during the live telecast. During a show Saturday at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Elton John called Houston an "angel" and the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. He then performed his melancholy classic "Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me."
Houston herself won six Grammys and had been expected to perform at the pre-awards gala Saturday night thrown by music impresario Clive Davis, her longtime mentor.
Davis went ahead with his annual party and concert, which were held at the same hotel where Houston's body was found -- and where it remained for most of Saturday night. He dedicated the evening to her and asked for a moment of silence. Houston had been at rehearsals for the Davis concert on Thursday, coaching singers Brandy and Monica, according to a person who was at the event but was not authorized to speak publicly about it.
The person said Houston looked disheveled, was sweating profusely and liquor and cigarettes could be smelled on her breath. It was the latest of countless stories about the decline of a uniquely gifted and beautiful woman, once the golden girl of the music industry.
The Rev. Al Sharpton remembered Houston while preaching Sunday morning at the Second Baptist Church in Los Angeles. "Yes, she had an outstanding range," he said. "Yes, she could hit notes no one else could reach. But what made her different was she was born and bred in the bosom of the black church."
The congregation applauded and answered him with shouts of "Amen" and "Tell it!"
A sensation from her very first album, she was one of the world's best-selling artists from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s. She awed millions with soaring, but disciplined vocals rooted in gospel and polished for the masses, a bridge between the earthy passion of her godmother, Aretha Franklin, and the light pop of her cousin, Dionne Warwick.
