Bob Cramer's Blog

Like everyone, I was saddened to hear of Whitney Houston’s passing at the young age of 48. 

Her untimely death got me thinking about my one and only encounter with Ms. Houston and it is a memory that has stuck with me.  It was 1984 (I believe) and I was a young assignment editor in the New York bureau of the then fledgling CNN, sometimes referred to as Chicken Noodle News during those days.    One of the big perks of the job (it certainly wasn’t the pay) was a NYPD-authorized press pass that basically got you into almost any event, and let you cut the lines at nightclubs, crime scenes, what have you.

I remember attending an event one night somewhere on the Manhattan’s Upper East Side put on by Arista Records, with its legendary founder Clive Davis introducing its next new sensational singer, who happened to be Whitney Houston.  She was so young (we all were then), so pretty and when she performed, I remember she brought the house down.  Her voice was stunning and the entire place just seemed to go crazy in admiration for what a talent she possessed.  As time passed, I of course followed her career with interest having been a small part of her public unveiling.

Fast forwarding from that dazzling evening in New York to last night’s sad news, one wonders what transpired in those 28 years that lead a person with such promise and talent to such a tragic ending.  My thoughts go out to her family and friends.