Anita Pointer is a singer in R&B Group, The Pointer Sisters. She dies at the age of 74.
Anita Pointer, the Grammy Award-winning singer who was part of the hit R&B vocal group The Pointer Sisters, She has passed away. She was 74. News of her passing broke Saturday night, Dec. 31, as publicist Roger Neal shared she had fought a “very heroic battle with cancer” and died while surrounded by family at her Beverly Hills home.
The surviving members of the Pointer family including her siblings Ruth, Aaron and Fritz and granddaughter Roxie also issued a statement, stating, “While 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 and Bonnie and at peace. She was the one that kept all of us close and together for so long.”
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They added, “Her love of our family will live on in each of us. Please respect our privacy in this time of sorrow and loss. Heaven is a more loving beautiful place with Anita there.”
Pointer was born 1948 in Oakland (California), the second oldest of the four sisters who would later form the eponymous band. Their father Reverend Elton, their father, taught them how to sing in the family church.
In the ’60s, sisters Bonnie and June began performing in clubs under the moniker, “Pointers, A Pair” but soon Anita joined in 1969 and Ruth in 1972 to round out the lineup. Bonnie left in 1978 to pursue a solo career, and the remaining trio continued to find much success in the ’80s driven by hit songs like “Jump (For My Love)” and “I’m So Excited” that combined R&B, jazz, soul, funk and country. The Pointer Sisters achieved 13 Top 20 hits in their careers between 1973 and 1985, and they won three Grammy Awards.
In 1974, the crossover track “Fairytale,” written by Anita and Bonnie and featuring Anita on vocals became a country hit. The Pointer Sisters, the first Black female vocal group to appear on the Grand Ole Opry stage, became the most successful country music group in history.
Jada, Pointer’s only daughter and the inspiration for The Pointer Sisters song of that name, died in 2003. Anita’s sisters June and August preceded her in death in 2006. Bonnie in 2020.
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