By Wendy Carpenter
Cissy and Whitney Houston (photo: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images)In her first interview since daughter Whitney Houston died almost two months ago, Cissy Houston says she did "the best" she could raising her, and she is "very proud" of her.
On Thursday, Houston returned to the location of her daughter's funeral, New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, N.J., a symbolic gesture for her first public speaking appearance. The church is also where Whitney Houston awed the congregation with her prodigious singing as a child.
While the conversation with Brenda Blackmon of My9 in New Jersey won't air until Monday at 10 p.m., People.com reported excerpts.
"I'm very proud of my daughter," Houston said. "She accomplished a whole lot in the short time that she had here ... she was a very wonderful person."
Whitney Houston's death on Feb. 11 was ruled as an accidental drowning -- in the bathtub of her Beverly Hilton Hotel suite the night before the Grammys -- though it was determined that heart disease and cocaine contributed as well.
"I know I did the best I could. ... I don't blame myself," Houston said of her daughter. "I know I did the best I could for everything."
"I have my moments ..." Houston, a mother of three, responded when asked how she's dealing with losing her only daughter. "I'm not there yet ... I don't think I'm any more courageous than anyone else."
Houston, a Grammy Award—winning soul and gospel singer, also says there's one rumor that is completely false.
"Whitney did not die broke ... she's not broke. None of that crap."
It wasn't the first time Houston tried to help her famous daughter.
In a 2009 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Whitney Houston claimed it was her mother who fought to save her from her substance addiction.
"I'm not losing you to Satan," Whitney recalled her mother telling her. "I'm not doing this. I want my daughter back. I want you back."
Cissy Houston was "hysterical" after her daughter's death, Perez Hilton reported, and she said as much in a statement released at the time: "We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Whitney. This is an unimaginable tragedy and we will miss her terribly. We appreciate the outpouring of love and support from her fans and friends."
The sentiment was representative of the close relationship Cissy Houston and her daughter had.
Journalist Jawn Murray told FOXNews.com that their connection was comparable to that of Whitney Houston's situation with her own daughter, Bobbi Kristina, which was "amazingly close."
"They had a relationship that really resembled the relationship that Whitney Houston had with her own mother, Cissy Houston," said Murray, who interviewed Whitney Houston. "Whitney loved her daughter. Bobbi Kristina was her only child and her pride and joy. Because of that, she treasured her."