IN THE SPRING OF 2019, Pat Houston was in her home office in Georgia, going through an archive of mementos left behind by her sister-in-law, Whitney Houston. There were photos, some 25,000 of them, of moments both personal and professional: family vacations; Whitney in the hospital in 1993, after giving birth to her daughter, Bobbi Kristina; a 1996 performance at the Sultan of Brunei’s daughter’s wedding. There were her countless awards and plaques — Grammys, American Music Awards (AMAs), a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction statue, a framed commemoration of selling 200 million albums globally. And there were smaller, more personal things: a gold-plated Social Security card; a treasured book on Audrey Hepburn (Whitney loved old films); a Bible, a gift from her mother, Cissy, that Pat…
