American singer Anita Pointer, who enjoyed success in the 1970s and 1980s with her sisters in the rhythm and blues group 'Pointer Sisters', died on Saturday at the age of 74 from cancer, announced his agent.
“I am sad to announce that my Grammy-winning client, Anita Pointer, has passed away after a heroic battle with cancer,” Roger Neal posted on Instagram.
She was surrounded by family at her Beverly Hills home when she died.
Anita was the second oldest of four sisters who began performing as a duo with June and Bonnie in 1969 and quickly became a trio when Anita quit her job as a secretary to join the band, according to an official biography.
The Pointer Sisters later became a quartet with Ruth, the only surviving sister.
" In peace "
“Despite our deep sadness at the loss of Anita, we are comforted to know that she is now with her daughter Jada and her sisters June and Bonnie, and at peace,” the Pointer family said in a statement, asking that their bereavement be respected. .
The young women had started singing in 1969 in the church where their father was pastor in Oakland.
First marked by jazz, bebop and gospel, they released their first album in 1973. Their foray into country music with the song "Fairytale" in 1975 earned them their first Grammy award - they received some three - and they had been invited to the legendary hall of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, a first for black artists.
Their success became indisputable in 1975 with "How Long (Betcha Got a Chick on the Side)" then phenomenal when they covered "Fire" by Bruce Springsteen in 1978.
Despite Bonnie's departure, the trio continued to rise and multiplied their successes at the turn of the 1980s - "He's So Shy", "Slow Hand" - and the legendary "I'm so excited", co-written by Anita, and "Jump", on which hundreds of thousands of people still had to dance on New Year's Eve.
Although their popularity had waned by the late 1980s, the Pointer Sisters continued to perform in concert.
They were the star participants of the charity single "We Are the World" in 1985, to raise funds for the famine in Ethiopia.
The group received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1994.
June Pointer had left the group in 2004, replaced by a daughter of Ruth, Issa.
Anita continued to sing until 2015, when she retired for an unofficial reason.
Anita had only one daughter, Jada, who inspired the band's eponymous song in 1973. Jada died of cancer in 2003, after which Anita devoted herself to raising her only granddaughter, Roxie.