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Singer Anita Pointer (here in a picture from 2014): She was 74 years old
Photo: Andrew Chin/Getty Images
Anita Pointer, best known as a longtime member of the US band The Pointer Sisters, is dead. According to the music group's website, the singer died on December 31, 2022, aged 74.
According to her spokesman Roger Neal, "She was surrounded by her family at the time of her death."
Anita's sister Ruth, her brothers Aaron and Fritz, and granddaughter Roxie McKain Pointer issued a joint statement on the death of Anita Pointer.
"We are deeply saddened by the loss of Anita," the statement said, "but we are comforted to know that she is now with her daughter Jada and her sisters June and Bonnie and is at peace.
She was the one that kept us all together for so long.
Your love for our family will live on in each of us.«
Jada was the only daughter of Anita Pointer, she died in 2003. Jada had once inspired the Pointer Sisters to write a song with her name in the title.
Now only Ruth Pointer is alive
Anita Pointer, whose middle name is Marie, was born in Oakland, California in 1948.
At a young age she found her way to music as a gospel singer in her father's church.
The band The Pointers Sisters, then consisting of Anita and her three sisters Ruth, Bonnie and June, released their debut album in 1973. Anita Pointer had previously left her job in a law firm to pursue her dream of a music career.
The band's biggest hits include songs like "Fire", "Fairytale" and "I'm so excited".
Of the four sisters who were part of the debut album, only Ruth is now alive, who continues the band with other family members to this day.
Anita Pointer ended her singing career in 2015.
In a 2019 interview with Goldmine magazine, she said the band played "some great shows" even without her.
She herself had to go into forced retirement “for health reasons”.
Her career had been "wonderful".
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