Anita Bryant, the popular American singer and Christian activist who campaigned against gay rights, has sadly passed away.
The Grammy-nominated singer, who went on to became one of the high-profile and controversial campaigners against gay rights in America, died at the aged of 84.
According to a report by The New York Times, Anita Bryant’s family revealed that the singer she died from cancer at her home in Edmond, Oklahoma, on 16 December. In an obituary placed in local paper The Oklahoman, the family said: “May Anita’s memory and her faith in eternal life through Christ comfort all who embraced her.”
Anita Bryant, who was born on March 25, 1940, in Barnsdall, Oklahoma, began singing publicly at the tender age of six and occasionally appeared on local TV and radio. By the age of 12, she had her own series, The Anita Bryant Show, on WKY.
At 18, Anita Bryant won the Miss Oklahoma beauty pageant, earning second runner-up in the 1959 Miss America pageant. That same year, she released her self-titled debut album, showcasing her wholesome image.
During her famed career, Anita Bryant made appearances on the Billboard Hot 100 with hits like “Till There Was You” from Broadway’s The Music Man in 1959, as well as “In My Little Corner of the World” and “Paper Roses.”
The singer went on to put up incredible performances at both Republican and Democratic national conventions and sang at the White House during Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency, as he was one of her biggest fans. So moved by her rendition of “Battle Hymn of the Republic” at the 1971 Super Bowl halftime show, Johnson requested that she sing it at his funeral.
Also, in 1969, she became the spokesperson for Florida Citrus, famously coining the phrase, “Breakfast without orange juice is like a day without sunshine.”
Singing is not the only thing Anita Bryant was known for. In the late 1970s, Bryant became a very vocal opponent of gay rights, spearheading the anti-LGBTQ+ “Save Our Children” campaign, which aimed to overturn a Dade County, Florida ordinance that prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Speaking with the popular Playboy magazine in 1978, Bryant, who was a born-again Christian said: “I got involved only because they were asking for special privileges that violated the state law of Florida, not to mention God’s law.
“You know, when I was a child, you didn’t even mention the word homosexual, much less find out what the act was about. You knew it was very bad, but you couldn’t imagine what they tried to do, exactly, in terms of one taking a male role and the other taking a female role.
“I mean, it was too filthy to think about and you had other things to think about. So when I finally found out the implications, it was a total revelation for me.”
Even though the campaign succeeded, it also severely tarnished Bryant’s public image and sparked a nationwide boycott of Florida orange juice by the gay community and their allies.
Eventually, even bars stopped serving screwdriver cocktails, substituting them with a mix of vodka and apple juice, which they dubbed the “Anita Bryant cocktail.”
In an interview with Playboy Magazine, Anita Bryant revealed that she lost approximately half a million dollars in concert bookings and a deal to host her own TV show, as her public appearances increasingly attracted gay rights protesters.
In 1980, the singer was dropped by the Florida Citrus Commission, coinciding with her divorce from her husband of 20 years, disc jockey Bob Green. The split led to a loss of support from conservatives, who felt she was no longer a positive role model.
Years later, in 1990, Bryant married her childhood sweetheart, the late Charles Dry. Together, they made several efforts to revive her career, but with little success. She became the subject of various productions, including the 2016 play Anita Bryant’s Playboy Interview and the 2018 musical The Loneliest Girl in the World.
In 2019, a biopic about her life was reported to be in development, written and directed by Chad Hodge, with Ashley Judd set to star as Bryant.
She is survived by her children, two stepdaughters, and seven grandchildren.
