Seventies' and eighties RnB star Anita Pointer has died in Los Angeles on New Year's Eve aged 74. The singer - who sang with her sisters The Pointer Sisters - was surrounded by her family when she died, her publicist Roger Neal has said.
In a statement, her 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 & Bonnie and at peace. Heaven is a more loving beautiful place with Anita there. 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."
Her sister Bonnie Pointer, who co-founded the group in the late 60s, died in 2020 while her other sister June died in 2006, reports the Mirror. Anita's daughter Jada - who inspired The Pointer Sisters' 1973 song Jada, died in 2003 from pancreatic cancer aged 37. Following Jada's death, Anita raised her only grandchild Roxie.
The Pointer Sisters began as a duo with Bonnie and June Pointer in the late 60s, but Anita soon joined. Their sister Ruth began singing with the group in 1972, making it a quartet. Among the band's many hits included He's So Shy, I'm So Excited and Fairytale, which won the group there first Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group.
They went on to win two more Grammy Awards with 1983 album Break Out, which also saw them reach multi-platinum status. Over her life, Anita married several times and had only one child with David Harper, who she married aged 17. She gave birth to daughter Jada in 1966 - the same year she and David divorced. Anita had been due to appear on the US version of The Masked Singer in 2021 as part of a duet with sister Ruth, but was forced to pull out due to ill health.
