NEWARK-Clap­ping hands and sway­ing to gospel hymns in the church where Whit­ney Hous­ton's pow­er­ful voice once wowed her con­gre­ga­tion, the biggest names in en­ter­tain­ment sang along with the choir to re­mem­ber the pop su­per­star at her home­town fu­ner­al yes­ter­day. The fu­ner­al end­ed with a record­ing of Hous­ton singing "I Will Al­ways Love You" as pall­bear­ers car­ried her cas­ket out of the church. Her moth­er's sobs could be heard through­out the church, and Hous­ton's daugh­ter is cry­ing too.

"We are here to­day, hearts bro­ken but yet with God's strength we cel­e­brate the life of Whit­ney Hous­ton," the Rev Joe A Carter told the packed New Hope Bap­tist Church af­ter the choir be­hind him sang "The Lord is My Shep­herd." Mourn­ers in­clud­ing singer Jen­nifer Hud­son and Hous­ton's moth­er, gospel singer Cis­sy Hous­ton, stood, swayed and clapped along in the aisles. Gospel singers BeBe Winans and the Rev Kim Bur­rell joined with pop stars like Ali­cia Keys in pay­ing trib­ute to the 48-year-old pop su­per­star who first be­gan singing in the Newark church.

"You wait for a voice like that for a life­time," said mu­sic mogul Clive Davis, who shep­herd­ed Hous­ton's ca­reer for decades. The ser­vice had light­heart­ed mo­ments too-Kevin Cost­ner imag­in­ing a young Hous­ton us­ing her win­ning smile to get out of trou­ble; Hous­ton's cousin Dionne War­wick of­fer­ing short in­sights about the singer. Oth­ers were more mourn­ful: singer Ray J, who spent time with Hous­ton dur­ing her last days, broke down cry­ing. His sis­ter, singer Brandy, put her arm around him.

Cis­sy Hous­ton and Hous­ton's daugh­ter, 18-year-old Bob­bi Kristi­na, clutched each oth­er in the front row. To­ward the end of the ser­vice, Bob­bi Kristi­na and Ray J em­braced at length and spoke. Oth­ers gath­ered near the front of the church and hugged each oth­er. The most pow­er­ful mo­ment was re­served for the end. As Hous­ton's cas­ket was car­ried out, her hit "I Will Al­ways Love You" played. Bob­bi Kristi­na be­gan cry­ing, and the sobs of Hous­ton's moth­er rang through­out the church "My ba­by!" she wailed.

Ste­vie Won­der and Oprah Win­frey were among the biggest names gath­ered to mourn Hous­ton, along with Hud­son, Mon­i­ca, Brand and Jordin Sparks rep­re­sent­ing a gen­er­a­tion of big-voiced young singers who grew up em­u­lat­ing her. Hous­ton's voice, a record­ing of "I Will Al­ways Love You," was to close the fu­ner­al. Cost­ner, her co-star in "The Body­guard," which spawned her great­est hit, re­mem­bered a movie star who was un­cer­tain of her own fame, who "still won­dered, 'Am I good enough? Am I pret­ty enough? Will they like me?'"

"It was the bur­den that made her great and the part that caused her to stum­ble in the end," Cost­ner said. Film­mak­er Tyler Per­ry praised Hous­ton's "grace that kept on car­ry­ing her all the way through, the same grace led her all the way to the top of the charts. She sang for pres­i­dents." War­wick presided over the fu­ner­al, in­tro­duc­ing speak­ers and singers. Hous­ton's moth­er was helped by two peo­ple on ei­ther side of her as she walked in and sat with her grand­daugh­ter and oth­er fam­i­ly to be­gin the ser­vice. Hous­ton's ex-hus­band, Bob­by Brown, briefly ap­peared at her fu­ner­al, walk­ing to the cas­ket, touch­ing it and walk­ing out. Se­cu­ri­ty guards said Brown was up­set that he would have to sit sep­a­rate­ly from the peo­ple he ar­rived with, and left. A Brown rep­re­sen­ta­tive didn't im­me­di­ate­ly com­ment.

Mourn­ers fell qui­et as three po­lice of­fi­cers es­cort­ed Hous­ton's cas­ket, draped with white ros­es and pur­ple lilies. White-robed choir mem­bers be­gan to fill the pews on the podi­um. As the band played soft­ly, the choir sang in a hushed voice, "Whit­ney, Whit­ney, Whit­ney." Close fam­i­ly friend Aretha Franklin, whom Hous­ton lov­ing­ly called "Aunt Ree," had been ex­pect­ed to sing at the ser­vice, but she was too ill to at­tend. Franklin said in an email to The As­so­ci­at­ed Press that she had been up most of the night with leg spasms and sent best wish­es to the fam­i­ly. "May God bless and keep them all," she wrote.