ALPHARETTA, Georgia — Dozens of onlookers gathered on Saturday near a Georgia church for the funeral of Bobbi Kristina Brown, the 22-year-old daughter of late singer Whitney Houston, who died this week, months after she was found unresponsive in a bathtub.
Brown’s funeral at St. James United Methodist Church in Alpharetta, an Atlanta suburb, was private and closed to the public, but dozens of well-wishers stood behind police barricades outside.
Among the mourners who entered the church were Grammy-winning R&B singer Monica, and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.
Bobby Brown and singer Cissy Houston, the grandmother of Bobbi Kristina, were also seen arriving at the funeral.
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Alpharetta police said they were assisted by more than a dozen state troopers to manage traffic and shut down lanes to accommodate parking around the church where the service is being held.
Brown died on Sunday at a hospice, six months after suffering irreversible brain damage in a still unexplained incident at her Roswell, Georgia, home.
She was found face down and unresponsive in a bathtub by her boyfriend, Nick Gordon, and a friend in January in an eerie echo of her mother’s death. Whitney Houston was found drowned in a bathtub at a Beverly Hills hotel in 2012.
The Grammy Award winner scored numerous hits including “I Will Always Love You” and “Greatest Love of All,” making her one of the most popular R&B artists ever.
Brown, whose father was R&B singer Bobby Brown, is expected to be buried on Monday next to her mother at a New Jersey cemetery.
“My heart goes out to the family and I want them to see when they drive by that people really do care,” said Maria Corkern, an Alpharetta resident among the crowd.
Adriane Gregory traveled from Connecticut with her husband and children to be near the funeral. “We’re die-hard fans of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, we just wanted to be near as we could be,” Gregory said. An initial autopsy this week found no obvious underlying cause for Brown’s death but investigators are still looking into the case, which is under review by the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office. No criminal charges have been filed. In June, Bobbi Kristina’s court-appointed conservator filed a $10 million civil lawsuit accusing her boyfriend of causing “life-threatening injuries” and stealing from her bank account while she was in a coma. Brown had inherited her mother’s fortune. Whitney Houston died in February 2012 on the eve of that year’s Grammy Awards ceremony. Authorities said cocaine abuse and heart disease contributed to her death. Brown and Houston were divorced at the time Houston died in a hotel bathtub in 2012. Bobbi Kristina was her only child. Reuters contributed to this report.
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