i will always love you the moment capped a moving funeral service that began with these remarks. we re here today, hearts broken, but yet, with god s strength we celebrate the life of whitney houston. opening the service, joe carter, pastor of the new hope baptist church, houston s famous friends one after another gave stunningly poignant tributes like actor and filmmaker tyler perry. there was a grace that carried, a grace that carried her from heaven down through miss cissy houston. a grace that brought her up through singing. a grace that from what i understand she wasn t supposed to be able to speak let alone speak because of an incident that happened as a child. but there was a grace that kept on carrying her all the way through. the same grace led her all the way to the top of the charts, sold all of these albums and just done some amazing things, won all these awards. she s sang for presidents, and there was a grace that kept on carrying her. gospel singer