Grammy-winning singer Anita Pointer of the Pointer Sisters dies at 74
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Jermaine Jackson performs with the Pointer Sisters June, Ruth and Anita (third from left) on stage during an award ceremony in Zwentendorf in Lower Austria, on July 24, 2009.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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LOS ANGELES – Anita Pointer, one of the Grammy-winning Pointer Sisters whose string of pop, country and R&B hits in the 1970s and 1980s included I’m So Excited, Jump (For My Love) and Fire, died of cancer last Saturday at age 74, her publicist said.
Pointer was surrounded by family at her Beverly Hills home when she died, publicist Roger Neal said.
The Pointer Sisters started performing as a duo with June and Bonnie Pointer in 1969, and soon became a trio when Anita Pointer – the second oldest of four sisters – quit her job as a secretary to join the group, according to an official biography.
The Pointer Sisters later became a quartet for a while with Ruth Pointer, 76, the only one of the original singing sisters still alive, though Bonnie Pointer left the group in the late 1970s and they became a trio once again.
The Pointer sisters also have two surviving brothers, Fritz and Aaron Pointer.
Anita Pointer was preceded in death by her daughter Jada Rashawn Pointer, who died in 2003, when Anita Pointer took over raising her granddaughter, Roxie McKain Pointer.
“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,” the family said in a statement.
The sisters grew up singing in the church of their father, a preacher in Oakland, California.
Their debut album in 1973 produced their first hit single Yes We Can Can.
Among their bigger hits were Fire in 1978, He’s So Shy in 1980, Slow Hand in 1981 and Neutron Dance, Automatic and Jump in 1983. I’m So Excited from 1982 remains a standard.
In recent years, the group continued performing with Ruth Pointer singing along with her daughter Issa Pointer and granddaughter Sadako Pointer. REUTERS
