Anita Pointer

Anita Marie Pointer was born on January 23, 1948, in Oakland, California, the fourth of six children born to Reverend Elton Pointer and Sarah Elizabeth Pointer. Although she was a California native, her parents were originally from Arkansas, and the family made nearly annual car trips from California to Arkansas to visit her grandparents in Prescott. During those visits, Pointer spent portions of her schooling there, attending fifth grade at McRae Elementary, seventh grade at McRae Jr. High, and tenth grade at McRae High School, where she also played alto saxophone in the school band. Pointer died on December 31, 2022, in Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 74.

In 1969, Pointer left her job as a secretary to join her younger sisters Bonnie and June in forming the Pointer Sisters. Their sister Ruth joined the group in 1972. The group rose to prominence in 1973 when Pointer sang lead on "Yes We Can Can," which reached No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100. That same year, the group released their debut album, which included "Jada," a song written by the group and inspired by Pointer's daughter. The following year, Pointer co-wrote "Fairytale" with her sister Bonnie and sang lead on the recording. The song became a hit on the country music charts and made the Pointer Sisters the first Black female group to perform at the Grand Ole Opry. At the 1975 Grammy Awards, "Fairytale" won Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group and received a nomination for Best Country Song.

Pointer served as lead vocalist on several of the group's major pop hits in the late 1970s and early 1980s. "Fire" reached No. 2 on the Billboard pop chart in 1978, and "Slow Hand" matched that peak position in 1981. "I'm So Excited," released in 1982, spent 40 weeks on the chart. She sang backup on additional hits drawn from the group's 1983 album Break Out, which achieved triple-platinum status. That album produced "Jump (For My Love)," led by June, which won the 1985 Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, and "Automatic," featuring Ruth on lead vocals, which won the 1985 Grammy for Best Vocal Arrangement for Two or More Voices. Other charting singles associated with the group during this period included "He's So Shy" in 1980 and "Neutron Dance" in 1984, the latter featured in the opening sequence of the film Beverly Hills Cop. Between 1973 and 1985, the Pointer Sisters placed 13 songs in the top 20 of the Billboard pop chart in the United States.

Pointer also pursued work outside the group. In 1986, she reached No. 2 on the country chart with a duet alongside Earl Thomas Conley titled "Too Many Times." Her debut solo album, Love for What It Is, was released in 1987 on RCA Records. Its lead single, "Overnight Success," reached No. 41 on the Billboard R&B chart, and a second single, "More Than a Memory," charted at No. 73 R&B in 1988. In 1995, Pointer appeared on Broadway in Ain't Misbehavin', adding a stage credit to her performance career. The following year, she received a soundtrack credit on the 1996 film The Associate.

In 1994, Pointer and her sisters were honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1998, she was individually inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame. In 2015, she retired from the Pointer Sisters following medical issues related to chemotherapy. In February 2020, Pointer published Fairytale: The Pointer Sisters' Family Story, co-written with her brother Fritz Pointer. The book covers the Pointer family's origins, their experiences as young Black women in the San Francisco Bay Area during the civil rights and Black Power movements of the late 1960s, and the challenges and achievements of their career, including chart history and discography.

In her personal life, Pointer married David Harper in December 1965 at age 17. The couple had a daughter, Jada Rashawn Pointer, born April 9, 1966, and divorced later that same year. Jada Pointer died of cancer in 2003 at the age of 37. Pointer later married Richard Gonzalez in October 1981; the two subsequently divorced. Her older brother, Aaron Pointer, played Major League Baseball and later worked as a referee in the National Football League. Her cousin Paul Silas had a career as a player and head coach in the National Basketball Association.