Whitney Houston’s Funeral set for Saturday, February 18th
February 15, 2012
Pop diva, Whitney Houston’s, funeral service will be held Saturday at New Hope Baptist Church, the church place where she first showcased her singing talents as a child.
The owner of the Whigham Funeral Home in Newark, N.J., said Tuesday that Houston’s funeral will be held at at noon at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey. Unfortunately for the thousands of “Would Be” fans and supporters, there will be no public memorial at Newark’s Prudential Center, the sports arena that the family had discussed as a possible venue.
The 48-year-old Houston died Feb. 11 at the Beverly Hills Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif., just hours before she was set to perform at producer and mentor Clive Davis’ annual pre-Grammy Awards bash. Officials say she was underwater in a bathtub and apparently unconscious when she was pulled out.
After an autopsy Sunday, authorities said there were no indications of foul play and no obvious signs of trauma on Houston. It could be weeks, however, before the coroner’s office completes toxicology tests to establish the cause of death. Although she was found under water, the coroner stated that there was not enough water in her system to say whether or not if her death was caused by drowning.
Los Angeles County Coroner’s assistant chief Ed Winter said there were bottles of prescription medicine in the room. He would not give details except to say: “There weren’t a lot of prescription bottles. You probably have just as many prescription bottles in your medicine cabinet.”
Whitney on her spirituality
“I’d talk on the phone,” she told Oprah Winfrey in 2009, talking about her drug abuse. “Watch TV. Listen to gospel. I would still read my Bible, amazingly enough. I would still read my Bible. I still had it in me. I knew God was there. I knew the light was there, and I was just trying to get back to it. I just kept trying to get back to that spirituality.”
Her body was returned to New Jersey late Monday.
Check out this video of Whitney Houston’s good friend, Kim Burrell, reflecting on her good friend: