opera singer Leontyne Price. Through her father, she is a great-great-granddaughter of Jeremiah Burke Sanderson, an American abolitionist and advocate for the civil and educational rights of black Americans. Her godmother was singer Darlene Love and Franklin was considered an "honorary aunt". Devastated by the events of the 1967 Newark riots, Whitney's family eventually relocated to a middle-class area in East Orange, New Jersey. Her parents later divorced. Houston was raised a Baptist but admitted to being exposed to the Pentecostal church as well. Houston began singing in the church choir at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark at age five, where she also learned to play the piano. By age eleven, she began performing as a soloist for the junior gospel choir, performing the hymn, "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah". Houston would be taught how to sing throughout her adolescence by her mother Cissy. After attending Franklin Elementary School (now the Whitney E. Houston Academy of Creative and Performing Arts), Houston was transferred to an all-girls Catholic school, Mount Saint Dominic Academy at nearby Caldwell, in her sixth grade year where she eventually graduated from in 1981 at 17. On February 18, 1978, a fourteen-year-old Houston made her non-church performance debut at Manhattan's Town Hall singing the Broadway standard, "Tomorrow" from the musical, Annie, receiving her first standing ovation. Later that year, Houston sang background on mother Cissy's solo album, Think It Over, with the title track later reaching the top 5 of the Billboard disco chart. The album's producer Michael Zager recorded her lead vocal on his disco song, "Life's a Party", with the album of the same name released later in 1978. Throughout her childhood and early career, Houston was influenced by her mother, cousins Dionne and Dee Dee and singers such as Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight and Roberta Flack. During this period, Houston sang background for her mother on the cabaret club circuit in New York City. Houston contributed backing vocals for Khan and Lou Rawls on their respective albums, Naughty and Shades of Blue. In the same year, Houston met Robyn Crawford while both worked as counselors at a youth summer camp in East Orange. The two became fast friends and Houston later described Crawford as the "sister [she] never had". Along with being best friends, Crawford would become a roommate and executive assistant. Following Houston's rise to fame, rumors began