Anita Marie Pointer (January 23, 1948December 31, 2022) was an American singer-songwriter, best known as a founding member of the vocal group

the Pointer Sisters The Pointer Sisters are an American pop and R&B singing group from Oakland, California, that achieved mainstream success during the 1970s and 1980s. Their repertoire has included such diverse genres as pop, jazz, electronic music, bebop, bl ...

. She co-wrote and was the lead singer on their hit song "

Fairytale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful beings. In most cul ...

", which garnered them their first

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

in 1975. She was also the lead singer on many of their other hits, including " Yes We Can Can", "

Fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition point, flames a ...

", " Slow Hand", and " I'm So Excited".

Early life and family

Pointer was born in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

, on January 23, 1948, as the fourth of six children to Sarah Elizabeth (née Silas; 1924–2000) and Reverend Elton Pointer (1901–1979).Arkansas In Ink, Anita Marie Pointer (1948–)
Retrieved July 15, 2020. Though she was born in California, Pointer's parents were natives of

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

. As a result, her family traveled by car almost yearly from California to Arkansas to visit Pointer's grandparents who lived in Prescott. During that time, her mother allowed her to stay with her grandparents to attend fifth grade at McRae Elementary, seventh grade at McRae Jr. High, and tenth grade at McRae High School. While in Prescott, she played alto sax as a member of the McRae High School band. In 1969, Pointer quit her job as a secretary to join her younger sisters

Bonnie Bonnie, is a Scottish given name and is sometimes used as a descriptive reference, as in the Scottish folk song, My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean. It comes from the Scots language word "bonnie" (pretty, attractive), or the French bonne (good). That ...

and

June June is the sixth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and is the second of four months to have a length of 30 days, and the third of five months to have a length of less than 31 days. June contains the summer solstice in ...

to form

. Their sister

Ruth Ruth (or its variants) may refer to: Places France * Château de Ruthie, castle in the commune of Aussurucq in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques département of France Switzerland * Ruth, a hamlet in Cologny United States * Ruth, Alabama * Ruth, Ar ...

joined the group in 1972.

Career

Pointer and her sisters found fame in 1973, when she sang lead on " Yes We Can Can", which reached 11 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. In 1974, Pointer's writing talents helped the group make music history when "

" became a hit on the country music charts and enabled the Pointer Sisters to become the first black female group to perform at the Grand Ole Opry. "Fairytale", written by Pointer and her sister Bonnie and featuring Pointer on lead vocals, earned the group its first

, winning Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group and receiving a Grammy nomination for the

Best Country Song The Grammy Award for Best Country Song (sometimes known as the Country Songwriter's Award) has been awarded since 1965. The award is given to the songwriter(s) of the song, not to the artist, except if the artist is also the songwriter. There ha ...

of the year in 1975. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Pointer Sisters rose to higher levels of success. Pointer was the lead singer on many of their hits, including "

" (1978) and " Slow Hand" (1981), which both reached No. 2 on the ''Billboard'' pop chart, and " I'm So Excited" (1982), which spent 40 weeks on the chart. She sang backup on other hits, with June leading " Jump (For My Love)", which won the 1985 Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, and " Automatic" featuring Ruth as lead and winning the Grammy for Best Vocal Arrangement for Two or More Voices, also in 1985. Both songs were from the 1983 album '' Break Out'', which reached triple-platinum status. Other Pointer Sisters' hits included " He's So Shy" (1980) and " Neutron Dance" (1984), which was popularized in the opening scene of the film ''

Beverly Hills Cop ''Beverly Hills Cop'' is a 1984 American buddy cop action comedy film directed by Martin Brest, screenplay by Daniel Petrie Jr., story by Danilo Bach and Daniel Petrie Jr., and starring Eddie Murphy as Axel Foley, a street-smart Detroit cop ...

''. From 1973 to 1985, they had 13 top-20 pop hits in the United States. In 1986, Pointer found chart success with country superstar

Earl Thomas Conley Earl Thomas Conley (October 17, 1941 – April 10, 2019)Wood, Gerry. (1998). "Earl Thomas Conley". In ''The Encyclopedia of Country Music''. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 108. was an American country music singer-songwriter. Between ...

on the song " Too Many Times", which reached No. 2 on the

country chart Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...

. In 1987, she released her first solo album, ''Love for What It Is''. Her album's first single, "Overnight Success", reached No. 41 on the ''Billboard'' R&B chart. A second single from the album, ''More Than a Memory'', also charted, reaching No. 73 R&B in 1988. In 1994, Pointer and her sisters received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 1998, Pointer was singularly inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame. In 2015, she retired from the Pointer Sisters after medical issues following

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs ( chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemothe ...

. In February 2020, Pointer released the book, ''Fairytale: The Pointer Sisters' Family Story'' which was co-written with her brother, Fritz Pointer. The book chronicles the Pointer family origins and history as well as finding themselves as young black women in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

during the

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...

and Black Power movement of the late 1960s. As well, it describes the difficulties and successes they encountered throughout their career and shares their chart history, discography and other surprises along the way. Throughout the book, family members also share their memories of the Pointer family history including Bonnie, who passed in June 2020. The book earned positive reviews upon release.

Personal life

Pointer was married several times and had one child. In December 1965, at age 17, Pointer married David Harper. They had a daughter, Jada Rashawn Pointer, born April 9, 1966. They divorced later in 1966. Jada Pointer died of cancer in 2003, aged 37. Her daughter inspired one of the Pointer Sisters' most popular songs, "Jada," written by the group and released on their debut album in 1973. In October 1981, Pointer married Richard Gonzalez. Pointer and Gonzalez later divorced. Pointer's older brother, Aaron Pointer, was a

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

player and later a referee in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

. Her cousin Paul Silas was a

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

player and

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

Health and death

In October 2021, Pointer was supposed to be a contestant on season 6 of ''The Masked Singer'', as part of a duet with her sister Ruth, who revealed that Pointer had not performed because she was dealing with an illness. Pointer died from cancer at her home in Beverly Hills, California, on December 31, 2022, aged 74.

Discography

Albums

''Love for What It Is'' (1987 RCA Records) # "Overnight Success" (4:45) # "Love Me Like You Do (5:25) # "The Pledge" (duet with Philip Bailey) (3:16) # "You Don't Scare Me" (3:40) # "More Than a Memory" (4:45) # "Have a Little Faith in Love" (5:56) # "Love for What It Is" (5:05) # "Beware of What You Want" (5:42) # "Temporarily Blue" (4:20)

Singles

Guest singles

Soundtracks * 1996: '' The Associate''

References

External links

Biography of Anita Pointer
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pointer, Anita 1948 births 2022 deaths 20th-century African-American women singers 21st-century African-American women singers African-American songwriters American rhythm and blues singers Deaths from cancer in California Musicians from Oakland, California People from Prescott, Arkansas Anita Singers from Arkansas Songwriters from Arkansas Songwriters from California The Pointer Sisters members United Service Organizations entertainers