ITABAKI HISTORIA,MAY GOD REST HER SOUL IN PEACE(WHITNEY HOUSTON)

Picha yake ya mwisho: Whitney Houston is sweating and looks worse for wear as she leaves Tru Hollywood nightclub on Thursday night

Hotel: Houston was found dead in a room on the fourth floor of the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles, California

Scene: A police van pulls up outside the Hilton after Houston's death. Right, officers gather outside the hotel as an investigation begins into the causes of death

Relationship: Houston performs with singer Bobby Brown, left. Their turbulent marriage was the subject of tabloid gossip for years

Mentor: Houston's career was started by record label boss Clive Davis, right, who saw her singing in a nightclub with her mother

Film: In 1992, she became a star in the acting world with 'The Bodyguard'. The story of a singer guarded by a former Secret Service agent was a success

Famous friend: South African President Nelson Mandela and Whitney Houston smile for photographers in Johannesburg

Relatives: In this January 1998 photo, singer Houston, left, celebrates her win at the American Music Awards with her mother, Cissy, and brother, Gary, in Los Angeles

Family: Houston, centre, poses with her former husband, singer Bobby Brown, right, and their daughter Bobbi, left, at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, in August 2004

Successor: Houston with Mariah Carey, one of the young singers who followed in her wake

With Ray J: Houston had another on-off relationship with the singer over the last few years

Child: Houston, pictured in 1965, was the daughter of gospel singer Cissy Houston, the cousin of 1960s pop diva Dionne Warwick and the goddaughter of Aretha Franklin

Duet: Houston sings with Jermaine Jackson during rehearsals for a TV performance in 1984

Odd friendship: Winfrey and Brown met with Israel's prime minister Ariel Sharon on a trip to the Middle Eastern country in 2003

But during these career and personal highs, Houston was using drugs.

She blamed her rocky marriage to Brown, which included a charge of domestic abuse against him in 1993. They divorced in 2007.

Houston would go to rehab twice before she would declare herself drug-free to Oprah Winfrey in 2010. But in the interim, there were missed concert dates, a stop at an airport due to drugs, and public meltdowns.