Anita Pointer, the preacher’s daughter who gained fame as a member of the Pointer Sisters with hits like “I’m So Excited” and “Jump (For My Love),” died at her Beverly Hills home at the age of 74.
A spokesman said the cause of death was cancer and that the three-time Grammy winner was surrounded by loved ones.
“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 & Bonnie and at peace,” the family said in a statement to Reuters.
“She was the one that kept all of us close and together for so long. Her love of our family will live on in each of us.”
Anita, one of six children raised in a strict household in Oakland, California, began working her pipes as a tot. “All we really had to make us happy were our voices,” she once said.
She and her sisters sharpened their talent in the church choir before Bonnie and June formed a duet that became a trio when Anita joined it. Sister Ruth eventually came on board The Pointer Sisters, which was at times a quartet and other times a trio.
The Pointer Sisters in 1970.
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty
The sisters began as backup singers and initially garnered attention for their 1940s-style outfits before they broke into the big time and became staples of the airwaves in the 1970s and 1980s, churning out hits across genres from country to R&B to rock. Their best known songs also include “Fairytale,” “He’s So Shy,” “Fire,” “Slow Hand,” and “Neutron Dance.”
Anita had a daughter, Jada, from a short-lived marriage in the 1960s, but she died of cancer in 2003. The singer then raised her granddaughter, Roxie.
“The holidays are hard for me and Roxie,” told the Las Vegas Sun in 2008. “We try to go away so we don’t have to think about it. But this year we’ll be home. We’re doing better. For many years we couldn’t even talk about it. It still hurts me deeply. I cry almost every day. I miss her every day.”
Pointer retired from performing in 2015. She was supposed to appear on The Masked Singer with sister Ruth in 2021—as a cupcake—but she had to bow out because of illness.
