“Whitney Houston died a cautionary tale, but all cautionary tales were heroes once.

That is how she arrived in the mid-1980s, a flawless vocalist singing impeccable songs and singlehandedly inserting gospel and classic-soul theatrics into mainstream pop. She was a sunbeam—radiant, perspective-altering, impossible to touch.

After her greatest years were behind her, she remained in the public eye as something thornier—a drug addict, and a casualty of the tabloid and reality-TV era, ill-equipped for ever-increasing levels of scrutiny. Ms. Houston’s fall attracted so much notice because she had so far to go, down from the clouds into an abyss.”