www.nfda.org
2 Memorial Business Journal March 1, 2012
800-228-6332
www.nfda.org
Newark, New Jersey – Perhaps the death of Whitney E. Houston was quite different from most celebrities. The legendary singer/actress died in Los Angeles on February 11; however, her family was located in Newark, New Jersey. Approximately four hours after the announcement of her death, Carolyn M. Whigham, owner of Whigham Funeral Home, Newark, received a call from Cissy Houston, Whitney’s mother, requesting that she go to Los Angeles. She told Whigham, “Go get my baby and bring her home. I don’t want anyone else to touch her but you.”
Whigham immediately made a call to a funeral home in California, requesting to rent their facilities for about four hours for the preparation of the remains. “The following morning, I was on a flight to Los Angeles,” Whigham said. “At the Beverly Hilton Hotel, I met with family members and explained to them my suggestions as to how to do the removal from the coroner’s office with little or no media coverage and get her home to New Jersey.”
The next day, Monday, at 9 a.m., with what Whigham described as “every TV station at the coroner’s office in Los Angeles,” she was able to remove the remains without the media even knowing. It is a secret that Whigham will keep to herself.
Whitney Houston’s private security company was parked directly outside the coroner’s office awaiting Whigham’s departure and followed her to the rented funeral home. “During the preparation, Houston’s security team was both inside and outside of the building, with one person outside the preparation room.
At about 3 p.m., Whigham escorted the body to Van Nuys Airport, where a private jet, provided by actor Tyler Perry, was waiting. “We were taken into a private hanger and the transporting was done,” Whigham said. “The only thing that the media saw was the airplane departing.”
While in Los Angeles, Whigham instructed her staff back in Newark to begin the process of screening the funeral home, making it less visible. A tent was placed at the entrance of the receiving area, curtains inside the funeral home were drawn and tents were put up along the walkways outside. Whigham explained that all of the tents were used as a precaution to avoid helicopter visibility. Drapes were put on all windows of the hearse used to bring the body to the funeral home. Tents were also placed at the gravesite in Fairview Cemetery in Westfield, New Jersey.
The plane arrived in New Jersey at about 11 p.m. It taxied to
a private hanger where the casket was transferred into the hearse.
Now Whitney Houston’s East Coast security team was on the scene. “They were in the hanger upon our arrival,”
Whigham said. The hearse was accompanied to the funeral home by five vans that included Houston’s East Coast security, as well as Newark police.
Whigham noted that Newark police not only barricaded Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., where the funeral home is located, but also the front and rear entrances of the funeral home.
Meantime, at Whigham Funeral Home, the East Coast security team had done a check of the funeral home with Whigham’s staff. Additional staff from the security team were already at the funeral home when the hearse arrived with Whitney Houston’s remains.
The entire time Houston’s body was at Whigham Funeral Home, from Monday evening until Sunday, her security team was present around the clock. “They slept here,” Whigham said. “We never touched her without them being present.”
The Newark Police Department provided 24-hour security around the exterior of the funeral home. “The only time Whitney was in our chapel was the night of the private visitation; otherwise she was under lock and key,” Whigham said.
“Regardless of who it was – family, personal friends, invited guests – a security check should be done for all,” Whigham added. “If they are going to enter the room with an open casket, then they must be checked for cell phones or cameras.”
Whitney Houston’s funeral was not the first held at Whigham Funeral Home, which has served many famous families, including other members of the Houston/Drinkard/Warwick families, Sarah Vaughn and others.
Whigham said, “We give God glory and we pray that Whitney E. Houston rest in peace.”
