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Anita Pointer, founder of the Pointer Sisters, dead at 74

January 2, 2023

Anita Pointer, founding member of multi-genre pop group The Pointer Sisters, died on Saturday at the age of 74. Her publicist, Roger Neal, said she had been battling cancer for a long time.

The Pointer Sisters helped define the sound of the early 1980s with a wet, sultry electronic sound and a brassy R&B approach. The band showed their range in recordings such as their original “I’m So Excited” and the Bruce Springsteen cover “Fire.” Anita Pointer has been integral to the band’s success, writing and performing many of their best-known songs. His fingerprints are all over the band’s work – a song from his debut album is named after his daughter Jada, who died in 2003.

With Anita’s death, Ruth Pointer is the last living member of the four siblings that made up the original Pointer Sisters. Ruth joined the already established trio in 1972.

Ruth, along with her brothers Aaron and Fritz and her granddaughter Roxie McKain Pointer, released a statement after the death. “While we are deeply saddened by the loss of Anita, we are comforted to know that she is now with her daughter, Jada and her sisters June & Bonnie and at peace,” the statement read. “She is the one who has kept us all close and together for so long. Her love for our family will live on in all of us. Please respect our privacy during this time of grief and loss. Heaven is a beautiful, more loving place with Anita there.

The Pointer Sisters have won three Grammys. The first, according to the Grammy Awards website, was the award for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for 1974’s “Fairytale,” written by Anita and Bonnie Pointer.

The country tune earned them enough credibility that the Pointer Sisters became the first black girl group to perform at the Grand Ole Opry, according to a biography on the group’s website. Elvis Presley cut a version of “Fairytale” on one of his last albums, “Today”.

Like Elvis, the sisters learned to sing on Sundays. They attended their father’s church in Oakland, California.

The group’s 1983 album “Break Out” earned it its two other Grammys – best vocal arrangement for “Automatic” and best pop performance for “Jump (For My Love),” according to the Grammys website.

Anita Pointer’s singing career began in 1969 after she quit her job as a secretary at a law firm, according to the band’s website. She retired from touring in 2015.

She was a collector of African American art and memorabilia. She amassed such a collection, according to her publicist, that the entire second floor of the Hollywood Museum in Los Angeles was given over to the Pointer Sisters’ “Ever After” exhibit. The last photo of Bonnie (who died in 2020), Anita and Ruth was taken at the exhibit.

Neal, her publicist, said Anita Pointer died at 6:27 p.m. at her Beverly Hills home, surrounded by Fritz, Roxie and Ruth.

Neal said no arrangements have been made. He provided a copy of a handwritten statement that Ruth Pointer wrote to everyone who loved her sister.

“The PAIN is SO DEEP,” she wrote. “I have no words except for a beautiful song you sang to, ‘Freedom.'”

This song capped the band’s 1985 “Contact” album and includes this verse:

I want to take you there (freedom)

I’m talking freedom everywhere (freedom)

Freedom but you, freedom but me

Oh, freedom, freedom (oh-oh-oh)

Let me go, let me go, let me go

I want it now, I want it now