Cissy Houston, Mother of Whitney Houston, Will Be Honored at the Gospel Image Awards

Cissy Houston, mother of late Whitney Houston and grandmother of the late Bobbi Kristina Brown, will be honored at the Gospel Image Awards.  The show is scheduled in Charlotte, N.C., this weekend.

The first Gospel Image Awards will bestow its first lifetime achievement award on Houston, who turns 82 next week, for her contributions to the musical genre that combines praising God with sophisticated entertainment values.

"Miss Cissy has worked for the gospel industry for a very, very long time and she's very deserving of this award," said Diana Davis, executive producer of the show, set to commence Saturday evening at the Halton Theater after the red-carpet arrivals.

Davis said the awards show, which will feature performances by national artists, is intended to be an annual event in Charlotte aimed at increasing the city's national profile. "We want to be big in gospel ceremonies," Davis said.

In 1996, Cissy Houston received the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album for Face to Face, an album that contained a Gospel version of "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)". The same year she contributed one song to the gospel soundtrack album for the film The Preacher's Wife, which starred her daughter Whitney Houston.

In 1998, she won her second Grammy for her album He Leadeth Me. She has also continued to record infrequent secular material and in 1987, Houston and her daughter Whitney recorded a duet titled "I Know Him So Well", a cover of the original by Barbara Dickson and Elaine Paige from the Broadway show, Chess. This song also became a single in early 1989 as the 6th and last single release (in selected European countries) from Whitney's album Whitney. In 1992 she teamed up with Chuck Jackson for an album of solo and duet recordings entitled I'll Take Care of You.

In 2006, she recorded the song "Family First" with niece Dionne Warwick and daughter Whitney Houston for the soundtrack to the movie Daddy's Little Girls. 

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