Anita Pointer Passes Away After A Long Battle With Cancer

Anita Pointer, the founder of the pop, country, and R&B band “Pointer Sisters,” passed away at 74. Pointer’s publicist said she died in her Los Angeles house surrounded by her family. Her cause of death was cancer. 

Anita Pointer’s family said, “While we are deeply saddened by the loss of Anita, we are comforted in knowing she is now with her daughter, Jada, and her sisters, June and Bonnie, and at peace. She was the one that kept all of us close and together for so long. Her love of our family will live on in each of us. Please respect our privacy during this period of grief and loss. Heaven is a more loving, beautiful place with Anita there.”

The sisters sang at the church of their father, who was a preacher in Oakland, California.

Anita Pointer rose to fame in the 1970s as the Pointer Sisters member. She was with the group from day one of its formations. Their first hit album was in 1973 when their self-titled debut reached No.13 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Over the next two decades, Pointer Sisters gave other hits such as “How Long (Betcha Got a Chick on the Side),” “Fire,” “He’s So Shy,” “Slow Hand,” and many more.

In 1969, in an interview with Goldmine, Anita Pointer said, “This has been a wonderful career. I didn’t plan any of this, I was planning on continuing to being a secretary in a law office, like I was doing, when I heard Bonnie and June singing in the Northern California State Youth Choir, performing ‘Oh Happy Day,’ with Edwin Hawkins and Dorothy Morrison, and I just loved it. So I quit my job and said that I had to do this too.”

The Sisters also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Additionally, they have won three Grammys.

Before Anita, June Pointer died in 2006, and Bonnie Pointer died in 2020. Anita Pointer’s daughter passed away in 2003 due to cancer, leaving Roxie, her daughter, to be raised by Anita.