Whitney Houston's daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown, dead at 22

[July 27, 2015]   By Rich McKay

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Bobbi Kristina Brown, the only child of late singer Whitney Houston, died on Sunday at the age of 22, some six months after suffering irreversible brain damage in an incident at her suburban Atlanta home, her family said in a statement.

Brown, whose father is R&B singer Bobby Brown, was found face down and unresponsive in a bathtub in her home by her partner and a friend on Jan. 31. She was moved by her family to hospice care on June 24.

"She is finally at peace in the arms of God," her family said. "We want to again thank everyone for their tremendous amount of love and support during these last few months."

As news of her death became public, media crews and some fans gathered on a darkened cul de sac in the Atlanta suburb of Duluth, where ornate street lamps illuminated the ivy-covered brick nursing home where Brown died.

"We just wanted to show our respect," said Ali Joyner, 15, who persuaded her mom and a neighbor to drive the 20 miles from their home in Dacula, Ga. "I just loved her mom, Whitney. And Bobbi is part of that."

Her death came three years after her Grammy-winning mother, who had battled substance abuse, drowned in a bathtub in a Beverly Hills hotel at age 48. Authorities said cocaine abuse and heart disease contributed to Houston's Feb. 11, 2012 death.

Bobbi Kristina Brown inherited her mother's fortune.

A $10 million civil lawsuit filed last month accuses Bobbi Kristina Brown's partner, Nick Gordon, of causing her life-threatening injuries and of stealing from her bank account while she was in a coma. No one has been charged in the case.

Bobbi Kristina Brown was an aspiring singer who began performing with her mother as early as 1999, singing duets of "My Love is Your Love." In 2003 they recorded another duet of "Little Drummer Boy" for a holiday album.

Her father is a Grammy Award winner who started his career as frontman for the R&B group New Edition.

Houston and Bobby Brown both struggled with substance abuse and divorced when their daughter was 14. Houston described their 15-year marriage, which ended in 2007, as drug- and alcohol-fueled.

The couple's tempestuous relationship and often erratic behavior was chronicled in the short-lived television series, "Being Bobby Brown."

Bobbi Kristina Brown was hospitalized twice with anxiety after her mother's death.

In 2012 she starred on Lifetime's reality TV show, "The Houstons: On Our Own," in which Houston's family struggled to recover from the famous singer's death. The same year Bobbi Kristina Brown guest-starred on "For Better or Worse," a television series about a married couple.

(Additional reporting by Jill Serjeant in New York, Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento and Chris Michaud in New York.; Editing by Paul Simao and Sharon Bernstein)

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