In her heyday, Whitney Houston seemed invincible.

So strong was her voice and so certain were her performances that it seemed she’d always be with us, entertaining us with modern pop, power ballads and stirring renditions of classics. As long as there were charts to top and airwaves to dominate, Houston was sure to be with us.

How wrong we were.

Houston’s publicist, Kristen Foster, confirmed Saturday that Houston was dead at 48. The Los Angeles Times reported that she was found in a Beverly Hills hotel room and that she was in town to perform at a tribute to her mentor, record executive Clive Davis.

Beverly Hills Lt. Mark Rosen told KABC-TV in Los Angeles that police received a 911 call at 3:45 p.m. (PST) and that efforts to revive her were unsuccessful. She was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m., he said.

The cause of Houston’s death was not known.

"Nothing obvious at this time," Rosen said. "No signs of foul play."

The superstar — one of the most successful entertainers ever to emerge from New Jersey — was troubled, insecure, tormented, caught in a protracted and painful battle with drugs.

The Rev. Joe A. Carter of the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, where Houston got her start, Saturday night said: "She was a treasure on a global scale and, on a personal note, with our church family. We’re asking everyone to pray for her family at this hour. We’re asking all to respect them at this hour of grieving."

Carter said a prayer service will be held for Houston — a Newark native who moved to East Orange as a child and later lived in Mendham — at the church at 6:30 this morning and that she would also be remembered at 7:45 and 10:45 services.

Houston’s passing came on the eve of the 54th annual Grammy Awards. From 1986 through 2000, she owned the Grammy stage, winning six awards and regularly performing on the show.

Houston co-produced and was featured on the 1992 soundtrack to "The Bodyguard" — a film in which she starred. The recording took album of the year honors at the 36th Grammys, and the yearning "I Will Always Love You," Houston’s biggest hit and signature song, won her golden gramophones in the record of the year and best pop vocal, female categories. At that moment, Houston was at the pinnacle — pop’s most reliable source of star power and one of the most gifted vocalists to lift a microphone to her lips.

But even then, the foundation was cracking. Houston would admit to talk show host Oprah Winfrey that she was doing hard drugs regularly during the 1990s. Her marriage to singer and rapper Bobby Brown, which ended in divorce in 2007, was already deteriorating into violence. Houston won another Grammy in 2000 for the upbeat "It’s Not Right, But It’s Okay," but after that, the pop powerhouse faded from public view, leaving fans wondering about what could have been.

But Houston was hoping to come back. She recently wrapped shooting on "Sparkle," a movie with Jordin Sparks of "American Idol" fame expected to be released this summer.

Much is made of Michael Jackson’s barrier-bursting music. Houston’s role in the desegregation of MTV and commercial radio was nearly as crucial. In the mid-’80s, it was nearly impossible to watch the video network for an hour without seeing her smiling face, or to listen to Z-100 without getting encountering her voice.

HER GLORY DAYS

Between 1985 and 1990, Houston topped the Billboard charts nine times, including a spectacular run of seven consecutive No. 1’s. "Saving All My Love for You," "How Will I Know," "I Wanna Dance With Somebody," "So Emotional" — this was the friendly sound of adult contemporary music. Houston didn’t sing for the city streets or for the suburbs: She reached everybody. In so doing, she became a model for current female pop stars to emulate — post-ethnic and relentlessly positive, with a voice larger than life.

It was a role she was born to fill. Houston was born into one of Newark’s first musical families — her mother, Cissy Houston, was a member of gospel standouts the Drinkard Singers before embarking on a successful solo career. Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick were her cousins, and her godmother was the Queen of Soul herself. ("How Will I Know," the most upbeat of Houston’s early singles, was addressed to Aretha Franklin.) The elder Houston sang, for years, at New Hope Baptist Church, and young Whitney was part of the choir — but even as a child, it was clear that nothing could keep her in the background for long.

The pop singer Darlene Love, who had known her since she was a child and remains close to her mother, described Houston's voice as almost ethereal.

"Her gift was from God," Love said. "She had that kind of voice that nobody else can have."

By the time she was 17, she’d modeled for Glamour and sang backup for Lou Rawls and Chaka Khan. Her first album, released in 1985, sold 13 million copies and spent 16 weeks on the top of the charts.

Former Newark Mayor Sharpe James said he and others recognized Houston’s star power from an early age. As an administrator at Essex County College, James said he organized concerts in which Cissy Houston would perform.

"One night she said: ‘Could I bring out my daughter’ " James said. "She came out on that stage and she just belted. We knew from then that this unique young lady was something special."

James said he was saddened by Houston's premature death, but said her music would be remembered for ages.

Her version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XXV was so well-received that it was released as a commercial single. The recording still opens each city council meeting in Houston’s native city.

"No one has ever reached a level of her rendition at the Super Bowl," James said. "That’s when we saw a pure Whitney. There will never be another national anthem sung like she did at that Super Bowl."

Newark Mayor Cory Booker tweeted, "RIP Whitney Houston, a Legend and great American artist. And always, one of Newark’s and New Jersey’s treasured daughters."

"A legend has died," Booker told The Star-Ledger. "As the world mourns the loss of one of the all-time greats, we in Newark feel an especially deep sadness. She went from a Newark church to the global stage, but she always remained a deep part of our pride and collective heart. She will be missed. Our prayers are with her family."

Booker's comments were echoed by East Orange Mayor Robert Bowser, who called Houston "a proud daughter of the city."

"During her extraordinary career," he said, "she brought joy into the hearts and lives of millions the world over."

ACROSS THE DIVIDE

Houston’s music became as popular as it did because it was a bridge between generations and genres. She could sing with the pop energy of Madonna, or summon the spirit of Barbra Streisand on a showy ballad. This was soul, but it wasn’t raw and gritty; it was modern, but never alienating. Her performances did draw from her gospel upbringing, but sparingly, strategically, just enough to give the song the requisite force, and never enough to upset the apple cart. Houston became the darling of the pop music establishment in the ‘80s — she was showered with awards, and became for millions the exemplar of upright young womanhood.

Unofficially, she was nicknamed the Prom Queen of Soul: an acknowledgment of her indebtedness to Franklin, her appeal to young listeners, her stranglehold on radio play lists, and her striking good looks.

Houston sold 55 million records in the United States alone and influenced a generation of younger singers, from Christina Aguilera to Mariah Carey, who, when she first came out, sounded so much like Houston that many thought it was Houston.

TRAGIC DECLINE

But by the end of her career, she became a stunning cautionary tale of the toll of drug use. Her album sales plummeted and the hits stopped coming; her once-serene image was shattered by a wild demeanor and bizarre public appearances. She confessed to abusing cocaine, marijuana and pills, and her pristine voice became raspy and hoarse, unable to hit the high notes as she had during her prime.

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"The biggest devil is me. I’m either my best friend or my worst enemy," Houston told ABC’s Diane Sawyer in an infamous 2002 interview with then-husband Brown by her side.

It was shocking to hear things like this from a woman for whom, at first, everything seemed so easy.

"The time that I first saw her singing in her mother’s act in a club … it was such a stunning impact," Clive Davis told "Good Morning America." "To hear this young girl breathe such fire into this song. I mean, it really sent the proverbial tingles up my spine."

Her decision not to follow the more soulful inflections of singers like Franklin drew criticism by some who saw her as playing down her black roots to go pop and reach white audiences. The criticism would become a constant refrain through much of her career. She was even booed during the "Soul Train Awards" in 1989.

"Sometimes it gets down to that, you know?" she told Katie Couric in 1996. "You're not black enough for them. I don't know. You're not R&B enough. You're very pop. The white audience has taken you away from them."



THE PRICE OF LOVE

Some saw her 1992 marriage to Brown as an attempt to refute those critics. It seemed to be an odd union; she was seen as pop’s pure princess while he had a bad-boy image, and already had children of his own. The couple had one daughter, Bobbi Kristina, in 1993. Over the years, he would be arrested several times, on charges ranging from drunken driving to failure to pay child support.

But Houston said their true personalities were not as far apart as people may have believed.

"When you love, you love. I mean, do you stop loving somebody because you have different images? You know, Bobby and I basically come from the same place," she told Rolling Stone in 1993. "You see somebody, and you deal with their image, that’s their image. It’s part of them, it’s not the whole picture. I am not always in a sequined gown. I am nobody’s angel. I can get down and dirty. I can get raunchy."

It would take several years, however, for the public to see that side of Houston. The moving 1991 rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl, amid the first Gulf War, set a new standard and once again reaffirmed her as America’s sweetheart. But Houston's slide continued and by 2006 she nearly lost her Mendham mansion to foreclosure.

Singer Bettye LaVette of West Orange, who resurrected her own career about 10 years ago after a period of relative dormancy, said she thought Houston had the talent and teaching — Houston’s mother, LaVette said, was one of the greatest gospel singers ever — that could have given her at least a second act.

"I thought that she had a better chance than almost all because her voice was so strong," LaVette said Saturday night. "She had a great commercial appeal and I was hoping that she was kind of going into another phase and work on being an older singer. I was really interested in hearing what kind of singer she was going to become."



The Associated Press and Star-Ledger staff writers Richard Khavkine and David Giambusso contributed to this report.