FāVS News News and Commentary about Religion and Ethics in Eastern Washington and North Idaho
Gospel music legend BeBe Winans announced today that he will author a memoir sharing details of his decades-long friendship with Whitney Houston to be titled “The Whitney I Knew.”
The book is set to publish in July, and book captures Winans’ personal stories and anecdotes that reveal Houston’s warmth, generosity, and humor. The book will feature interactive elements directing the reader to video footage and links to Houston’s top performances. A photo section will be included, according to a press release.
“BeBe Winans is a music icon in his own right and a man of faith who wants to share the inspiring story of his friendship with Whitney,” said Byron Williamson, president of Worthy Publishing. “The book offers an honest depiction of Houston as a treasured friend, and as a wife, daughter, and artist without peer.”
Winans met Houston at a concert in Detroit 26 years ago and quickly developed a close bond. They considered each other to be family. Sharing his perspective about their friendship after Houston’s death, Winans said in a press release, “This is full circle for me because the first day we met. . . I told her this, I said ‘I don't want to know your full name. I just want to know what church you come from because singing the way you sing, you come from somebody's church.’”
Tracy Simmons is an award-winning journalist specializing in religion reporting and digital entrepreneurship. In her approximate 20 years on the religion beat, Simmons has tucked a notepad in her pocket and found some of her favorite stories aboard cargo ships in New Jersey, on a police chase in Albuquerque, in dusty Texas church bell towers, on the streets of New York and in tent cities in Haiti. Simmons has worked as a multimedia journalist for newspapers across New Mexico, Texas, Connecticut and Washington. She is the executive director of SpokaneFāVS.com, a digital journalism start-up covering religion news and commentary in Spokane, Washington. She also writes for The Spokesman-Review and national publications. She is a Scholarly Assistant Professor of Journalism at Washington State University.
