If you’re going to be thrown out of Bobbi Kristina Brown’s funeral, do it in style! Leolah Brown, aunt to Bobbi Kristina Brown, was ejected from her niece’s funeral on Saturday and it was lauded director and family friend Tyler Perry that did the honors, showing Leolah to the door. Leolah was taken out for heckling the other Bobbi Kristina aunt Pat Houston when she began her part of the eulogy at their niece’s funeral.
This is not the first verbal assault Leolah Brown has made on Pat Houston – it’s become a veritable war of words. Most recently, Leolah has gone off on Pat for asking mourners to donate to the charity she runs rather than sending flowers to the funeral. You have to go with Team Leolah on this one. It’s not the appeal to donate to charity that’s unconscionable, it’s the appeal to hand money to Pat Houston’s charity that’s in poor taste.
Generally, charity appeals for funeral “in lieu of flowers” are to a charity that related to the illness or cause of death (cancer, kidney disease, lupus, etc). In this case, the appeal seems heartlessly self-serving since Pat Houston designed the funeral program and had her own charity named. The Marion P Foundation stands for “Marion Patricia” – Pat Houston’s first and middle name and is set up in Pat’s North Carolina hometown.
Why not a charity for victims of domestic violence, for drug and alcohol awareness, for suicide/mental health issues? Pat Houston’s charity runs a consignment boutique which supposedly donates 50% of profits to a Teen Summit project intended to help teen girls who are at-risk. Why only 50%? And the charity also sells candles with a whopping price tag of $65 for a small candle and, for those, “a portion” not specified goes to benefit the charity.
How much this charity benefits Pat Houston personally (if at all) is a big question mark but, undeniably, marketing her charity as part of Bobbi Kristina Brown’s funeral is just tacky. Imagine if family friend Tyler Perry, who helped organize the funeral had labeled the program “Tyler Perry Presents the Funeral of Bobbi Kristina Brown” or worse yet “Madea Goes to a Funeral.” Leolah Brown may be off her rocker (or at least behaves as if she is), but she has a point on this one.
Although Pat Houston’s bio on the Marion P Foundation’s site says she started this charity well before Whitney Houston died and has even said in interviews that it was part Whitney’s idea, the charity was registered nearly seven months after Whitney Houston died. That seems telling. The Pat Houston planned ceremony in Atlanta was boycotted by Dionne Warwick, but the family friend did show up today for Bobbi Kristina Brown’s internment beside her mother at the Fairview Cemetery in New Jersey.
And as questionable as Pat Houston’s actions are, Leolah Brown’s motives may be equally as shady. A friend of the Brown family has said that Leolah continues to stir up trouble (and headlines) in hopes that she will land a reality show. Leolah has pledged that the fight between the Brown and Houston families is far from over. However her brother Bobby Brown has said that with Bobbi Kristina’s death, the last tie between the families has also died so he sees their relationship as severed and left behind.
At least Bobbi Kristina Brown is out of the middle of this mess. Rest in Peace Krissi.
FameFlynet Photo Credit