The publicist for Anita Pointer said that she died on Saturday at the age of 74. She was one of four sisters who sang as The Pointer Sisters and had pop success and critical acclaim. Roger Neal, a publicist, said that the Grammy winner died while visiting family. The cause of death wasn’t known right away.
“We are deeply saddened by Anita’s death, but we are comforted by the fact that she is now at peace with her daughter Jada and her sisters June and Bonnie. “She was the one who kept us all close and together for so long,” her sister Ruth, brothers Aaron and Fritz, and granddaughter Roxie McKain Pointer said in a statement.
The only child of Anita Pointer, Jada Pointer, died in 2003. The minister’s daughters, Anita, Ruth, Bonnie, and June Pointer, sang in their father’s church in Oakland, California, when they were young.
The hit song “Yes We Can Can” was on the group’s first album, which was self-titled and came out in 1973. The singers got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1994. They were known for songs like “I’m So Excited,” “Slow Hand,” “Neutron Dance,” and “Jump (For My Love).
When it came out in 1983, “Break Out” sold three million copies and won two American Music Awards. Neal says that the group had 13 top 20 hits in the United States and won three Grammy Awards between 1973 and 1985.
Neal says that the Pointer Sisters were also the first African American group to play at the Grand Ole Opry and the first modern act to play at the San Francisco Opera House.
Bonnie Pointer left the group in 1977 and got a solo deal with Motown Records, but she wasn’t very successful with it. In 1990, when they moved away, Anita Pointer said, “We were devastated.” “The night she left, we put on a show, but then we just stopped. Without Bonnie, we were afraid it wouldn’t work.”
Until 1993, the group recorded with different members, including younger family members. In 2006, June Pointer died at the age of 52 from cancer.
Anita Pointer said that Bonnie Pointer would die of a heart attack in 2020, when she would be 69 years old. She said in a statement that Bonnie was the reason why the Pointer Sisters were formed.
More to Read: