- Anita Pointer, who penned quite a few of the Pointer Sisters’ hits, died at the age of 74.
- Her publicist explained to Insider that she died battling an unspecified most cancers.
- Pointer and her sisters broke ground for Black ladies in state and pop with their hits in the ’70s and ’80s.
Anita Pointer died at her home in Beverly Hills on Saturday at the age of 74, her publicist informed Insider.
She experienced an unspecified most cancers, said Roger Neal, a media representative for Pointer, and was surrounded by her sister, Ruth, her brother, Fritz, and her granddaughter, Roxie, when she died.
Pointer was a founding member of the Pointer Sisters, a vocal group from Oakland that reached critical and industrial achievement in the ’70s and ’80s, blending genres this sort of as blues, pop, and R&B. In individual, the group broke floor for Black ladies in state tunes, becoming the 1st woman African-American group to conduct on the extensive-operating Grand Ole Opry radio program.
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Ruth, the eldest of Pointer’s siblings, is the sole surviving primary member of the group.
“Though we are deeply saddened by the loss of Anita, we are comforted in knowing she is now with her daughter, Jada and her sisters June & Bonnie and at peace,” Ruth, as very well as Anita’s brothers and granddaughter, stated in a assertion. “She was the a single that held all of us close and alongside one another for so prolonged. Her adore of our household will reside on in just about every of us. Please regard our privateness through this period of grief and decline. Heaven is a a lot more loving, wonderful place with Anita there.”
Pointer’s only youngster, Jada, died in 2003. Pointer was the fourth of 6 kids.
Pointer and her sisters first uncovered good results in 1973 their self-titled album spawned the hit one “Sure We Can Can,” which reached #11 on the Billboard charts. Several of their tunes throughout far more than a dozen studio albums found chart achievement as nicely.
On their 2nd album, Which is a Lots, the monitor “Fairytale,” co-penned by Pointer and her sister, Bonnie, strike No. 13 on the pop charts and crossed in excess of to the region charts. It went on to earn a Grammy Award for Most effective State Efficiency by a Duo or Team with Vocal, the group’s initial of three, in 1975 Elvis Presley afterwards protected the music on his remaining album. On the primary recording, Pointer was also the guide vocalist, as she was for lots of of the group’s hits.
“It was so unbelievable that another person like Elvis could relate to the story in that song and want to history it,” Pointer stated in a 2006 interview. “I believe Elvis did ‘Fairytale’ wonderfully. I was incredibly pleased. He seriously captured the emotion in his version.”
In addition to getting the very first woman African-American act to look at the Grand Ole Opry, the Pointer Sisters were also the initially modern artists to execute at the San Francisco Opera Residence.
“When I hopped on phase with my sisters for the very first time, I experienced no notion the route my existence would acquire, the people today I would satisfy, and the items I would attain,” Pointer stated in a 2020 memoir she co-wrote with Fritz. “It is not the hits or misses that are the most crucial. It truly is the working experience I’ve experienced, the lives I have touched, and the recollections I’ve made.”
