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Posted: Jan 10, 2025 6:27 AMUpdated: Jan 10, 2025 6:27 AM
Barnsdall Native Anita Bryant Dies at 84
Tom Davis
Anita Bryant, the Grammy-nominated singer has died aged 84. Bryant’s family said she died from cancer at her home in Edmond, Oklahoma, on 16 December.
Born in Barnsdall, Oklahoma, on 25 March 1940, Anita Bryant began singing in public from the age of six and made occasional appearances on local TV and radio. She was given her own series, The Anita Bryant Show, when she was 12 years old.
Bryant won the Miss Oklahoma beauty pageant when she was 18 and was the second runner-up in the 1959 Miss America pageant, releasing her self-titled debut album that same year.
She appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 with songs such as “Till There Was You”, from Broadway’s The Music Man, in 1959, and again with “In My Little Corner of the World” and “Paper Roses”.
Bryant performed at both Republican and Democratic national conventions, as well as singing at the White House during the presidency of Lyndon B Johnson, one of her biggest fans.
Bryant became an outspoken opponent of gay rights, leading the anti-LGBTQ+ “Save Our Children” campaign that sought to repeal an ordinance in Dade county, Florida, that prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation.
She was appointed the spokesperson of Florida Citrus from 1969, coining the phrase: “Breakfast without orange juice is like a day without sunshine.”
(photo courtesy of Wikipedia and Billboard)
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