The biggest names in entertainment clapped hands, swayed to gospel hymns and sang along with the choir at Whitney Houston’s hometown funeral Saturday in the church where the future pop star once wowed the congregation as a young girl.

Mourners including singer Jennifer Hudson and Houston’s mother, gospel singer Cissy Houston, stood, swayed and clapped along in the aisles as gospel singers CeCe and BeBe Winans and the Rev. Kim Burrell joined with pop stars like Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder and R. Kelly in paying tribute to the 48-year-old pop superstar who first began singing in the Newark church.

Others were more mournful; singer Ray J., who spent time with Houston during her last days, broke down crying. His sister, singer Brandy, put her arm around him. Cissy Houston and Whitney Houston’s daughter, 18-year-old Bobbi Kristina, clutched each other in the front row.

Filmmaker Tyler Perry praised Houston’s “grace that kept on carrying her all the way through, the same grace led her all the way to the top of the charts. She sang for presidents.”

Wonder and Oprah Winfrey were among the biggest names gathered to mourn Houston, along with Hudson, Monica, Brandy and Jordin Sparks — representing a generation of big-voiced young singers who grew up emulating her. Houston’s voice, a recording of “I Will Always Love You,” was to close the funeral.

Houston’s cousin, singer Dionne Warwick, presided over the funeral, introducing speakers and singers and offering short comments about Houston between them.

Houston’s mother was helped by two people on either side of her as she walked in and sat with her granddaughter and other family to begin the service.

Houston’s ex-husband, Bobby Brown, briefly appeared at her funeral, walking to the casket, touching it and walking out. Security guards said Brown was upset that he would have to sit separately from the people he arrived with, and left.

After all the testimonials from relatives and friends, the songs from legends and pop stars, the preaching and even laughter, the raw emotion of Whitney Houston’s funeral came down to just one moment: The sound of her own voice.

As the strains of her biggest record, “I Will Always Love You,” filled the New Hope Baptist Church at the end of the nearly four-hour service Saturday and her silver-and-gold casket was lifted in the air, the weight of the moment was too much for mother, gospel singer Cissy Houston, to bear. As she was held up by two women, she wailed, “My baby! My baby!” as she was led out of the church behind her daughter’s body.

A few steps behind her was the pop icon’s daughter, Bobbi Kristina, also crying uncontrollably as she was comforted by Houston’s close friend, singer Ray J.
Houston was buried next to her father, John Houston, in nearby Westfield, N.J.