Whitneys Funeral: A Celebration of a Fallen Star

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(Newark, NJ) Fallen star Whitney Houston had her life celebrated and not mourned at her beautiful and touching funeral ceremony.  Whitney Houston was beloved equally by her fans and family and it truly showed when people told stories about how Whitney affected their lives in truly special, positive ways.

Everyone from Alicia Keys, to Kevin Costner, to Stevie Wonder,  praised Whitney Houston's personality and remembered her for the kind, unique individual she was and not the troubled celebrity she became.

Kevin Costner talked candidly about how he always knew that Whitney Houston was the perfect person for the Bodyguard movie even though she was green as far as acting was concerned.  He joked about Whitney's struggle to acquire the coveted role and how her make-up even melted because of the hot lights she had to audition under.  Despite that, Whitney went to win the casting agents hearts and got the part Kevin Costner knew she was so perfect for.  He even went to say that he knew that he could have been replaced in the movie by any other actor, but not Whitney, Whitney was the only one who could have done her role at the time.

Alicia Keys had a hard time keeping her composure as she sang an emotional rendition of "Send Me an Angel" where she changed some of the lyrics for Whitney.  She spoke of Whitney as a mentor and someone who would call her just to say "hello".  For the first time in Alicia's career, her voice cracked as she sang with deep emotion and tried to keep it all together as she sang the lyric "Whitney is an Angel".

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Whitney's ex-husband, Bobby Brown, stormed out of the church because they did not have enough seats for his 9 people entourage even though he had said he was only bringing two people.  He also wanted to seat with his daughter, Bobby Christina, but the family was having none of it.  Eventually he just left the ceremony.

Singer Aretha Franklin was supposed to be making an appearance but cancelled because she was too "ill" to perform.  Aretha had just done a one on one interview with Al Roker and spoke about Whitney and how she will miss her "Nippy", Whitney's childhood nick name from her family and friends.  In the interview she cited that she would be performing at Whitney's funeral because Whitney's mom, Cissy, had asked her to do so.  Aretha performed last night at the Radio City Music so it's unclear what happened to make her "too ill" to perform at the funeral service.

The saddest bit of information was revealed by Clive Davis who claimed that Whitney came to him, alone, no bodyguard, no entourage, to talk to him about her new movie "Sparkle", and how he had shown her new music that he wanted her to do.  He says that Whitney told him that she was on her way back to being back to her old self, swimming everyday, taking care of her voice, and that she was ready to return around August for her big comeback.  Whitney would never realize her last dream, she died within days of having this conversation with Clive Davis.

If anything was obvious by Whitney's funeral, is that unlike other drug addicts, Whitney always stayed true to her friends and family, and always felt close to God.  She did not harm her family, except by harming her own self. She cared about people that surrounded her but ultimately felt that the only person that could judge her was God, and not the world.

The funeral service lasted a long time, approximately 2 1/2 hours, and ended by the casket being brought out of the service with Whitney singing her most famous song, "I Will Always Love You", in the background.  Her mother was being held up by two people as she walked behind the casket, devastated over her daughters loss.

As her casket was brought out, Ray J, Brandy's brother and Whitney's last known boyfriend, could not be consoled as he touched her casket as it was being carried it out.  He then collapsed into his hands and sobbed as his famous sister tried to console him.

MISSED THE FUNERAL? WATCH IT HERE.

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