Beverly Hilton — Whitney Houston Death

Whitney Houston was found dead in room 434 of the Beverly Hilton Hotel at 9876 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, on the afternoon of 11 February 2012. She was discovered by her assistant submerged face down in the bathtub; she had drowned. The coroner's report found that she had been affected by atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use, with the cocaine listed as a contributing factor. She was 48 years old. She had been at the hotel preparing to attend the pre-Grammy party hosted by Clive Davis — her mentor and the man who had signed her to Arista Records at the age of nineteen — that was to take place in the hotel's ballroom that same evening.

Whitney Houston was one of the most gifted vocalists in the history of American popular music — a soprano of extraordinary range and technical command who had also demonstrated extraordinary interpretive depth on songs including 'I Will Always Love You', 'Greatest Love of All', and 'Saving All My Love for You'. Her career was defined by extraordinary early success followed by a long struggle with drug addiction and a turbulent marriage to singer Bobby Brown. Her final years were marked by a partial recovery — her 2009 comeback album I Look to You debuted at number one — before her death at the Beverly Hilton.

The Beverly Hilton is an active luxury hotel and does not maintain a memorial to Houston. The pre-Grammy party that was scheduled to take place there on the evening of her death continued, with the event becoming an emotional gathering in her memory. Houston is buried at Fairview Cemetery in Westfield, New Jersey, near the church where she sang in the choir as a girl. Her grave is a pilgrimage site for her many devoted fans.