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Anita Bryant Dies: Singer, Orange Juice Pitchwoman & Anti-Gay Campaigner Was 84
Deadline ^ | 1/9/25 | Greg Evans

Posted on 01/09/2025 4:44:44 PM PST by Borges

Anita Bryant, a Grammy nominated singer, TV personality and orange juice pitchwoman whose show business career was submerged in the public eye by her anti-gay crusades of the late 1970s, died December 16 at her home in Edmond, Oklahoma. She was 84.

Her death was announced in an obituary in The Oklahoman. A cause of death was not revealed.

Born on March 25, 1940, in Barnsdall, Oklahoma, Bryant grew up in a devoutly Christian family, with her love of music and singing leading to her own TV show at the age of 12, according to the obituary. At 18 she was crowned Miss Oklahoma, and would soon appear on the CBS variety show hosted by Arthur Godfrey and the Dick Clark-hosted American Bandstand.

Her chart hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s included “Till There Was You,” “Paper Roses,” “In My Little Corner of the World,” and “Wonderland by Night.”

A regular on Bob Hope’s holiday tours of military bases abroad, Bryant sang at the White House for President Lyndon B. Johnson (and at his graveside service), and in 1968 sang at both the Republican and the Democratic national conventions.

In 1971, Bryant sang at the Super Bowl. She would cohost the nationally televised segment of the Orange Bowl Parade for nine years, but her public profile – not to mention that of orange juice – had truly surged in 1969 when she became a spokeswoman for the Florida Citrus Commission. In commercials that often featured the animated “Orange Bird” character, Bryant sang the earworm jingle “Come to the Florida Sunshine Tree” and made the tagline “Breakfast without orange juice is like a day without sunshine” a national catchphrase.

Her ties to Florida prompted her to become a leading voice opposing a 1977 Dade County ordinance that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Spearheading a coalition called Save Our Children, Bryant used homophobic tropes about recruitment of children and child molestation in a campaign that led to the ordinance’s repeal.

Save Our Children’s success, however, resulted in severe backlash, with both Bryant and orange juice the targets. Gay rights advocates organized a boycott of the singer and the juice, and in an instantly famous 1977 incident that would presage the subsequent decades’ theatrical protests of ACT-UP and Queer Nation, Bryant was hit in the face with a pie during a TV appearance in Des Moines, Iowa. She made a quip that used a derogatory term for gay people before bursting into tears on camera.

Bryant also became the frequent butt of jokes on late-night talk shows (particularly in the monologues of Johnny Carson), on Saturday Night Live, in sitcoms such as Golden Girls and Designing Women and in Armistead Maupin’s 1980 novel More Tales of the City. Her reputation all but synonymous with intolerance, her show business career evaporated, and by the late 1990s she had filed for bankruptcy.

In 2006, she founded Anita Bryant Ministries International in Oklahoma City. She is survived by four children, two stepdaughters and seven grandchildren and their spouses.


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: anitabryant; cancelculture; celebobit; edmond; genderdysphoria; homosexualagenda; obituary; oklahoma
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To: Borges

She sure turned out to be a prophet. People mocked her. Everything she warned us about has come to pass.


41 posted on 01/09/2025 5:31:15 PM PST by DesertRhino (2016 Star Wars, 2020 The Empire Strikes Back, 2024... RETURN OF THE JEDI..)
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To: Borges

People who were not wrong:
1. Enoch Powell
2. Anita Bryant


42 posted on 01/09/2025 5:38:00 PM PST by Burma Jones
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To: Borges
Gay rights advocates organized a boycott of the singer and the juice, and in an instantly famous 1977 incident that would presage the subsequent decades’ theatrical protests of ACT-UP and Queer Nation, Bryant was hit in the face with a pie during a TV appearance in Des Moines, Iowa. She made a quip that used a derogatory term for gay people before bursting into tears on camera.

I remember seeing this on the TV news at the time. Her so-called "derogatory quip after getting hit with a pie in the face was, "At least it wasn't a fruit pie."

I always thought it was quite clever under the circumstances. Rest in peace, beautiful Anita.

43 posted on 01/09/2025 5:43:16 PM PST by fidelis (Ecce Crucem Domini! Fugite partes adversae! Vicit Leo de tribu Juda, Radix David! Alleluia!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

“pervert supremacists’” = the gay/fag mafia


44 posted on 01/09/2025 5:46:20 PM PST by A strike (You people keep using cash, how we gonna keep track of your ammo purchases?)
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To: Burma Jones

Tru Dat !!


45 posted on 01/09/2025 5:47:27 PM PST by A strike (You people keep using cash, how we gonna keep track of your ammo purchases?)
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To: Borges

She was a prophet. People laughed, but she’s been proven right.


46 posted on 01/09/2025 5:48:42 PM PST by Trump_Triumphant (“They recognized Him in the breaking of the Bread”)
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To: A strike

‘ the gay/fag mafia’

It’s sick. Glitter everywhere.


47 posted on 01/09/2025 5:49:42 PM PST by Fuzz
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To: Jane Long

“Bryant used homophobic tropes about recruitment of children and child molestation in a campaign that led to the ordinance’s repeal.” —unbiased?


48 posted on 01/09/2025 5:50:18 PM PST by sopo
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To: Burma Jones

And Joe McCarthy.


49 posted on 01/09/2025 5:53:08 PM PST by Trump_Triumphant (“They recognized Him in the breaking of the Bread”)
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To: Fuzz
Wow, did the letist/Gay Venom Squad do a job on her. It was disgusting.

God bless you, Anita, and rest in peace.

50 posted on 01/09/2025 5:54:10 PM PST by Robwin ( )
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To: sopo

At this point if I see the word “trope” in an article, I give it the side eye.


51 posted on 01/09/2025 5:54:20 PM PST by Borges
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To: billorites

Me too. I thought she was already deceased.


52 posted on 01/09/2025 5:55:49 PM PST by John Milner (Marching for Peace is like breathing for food.)
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To: Jane Long
Unbiased? How is this unbiased?
Bryant used homophobic tropes about recruitment of children and child molestation in a campaign that led to the ordinance’s repeal.

53 posted on 01/09/2025 5:56:06 PM PST by Responsibility2nd (Climate Change is Real. Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

‘ Unbiased? How is this unbiased?

Bryant used homophobic tropes about recruitment of children and child molestation in a campaign that led to the ordinance’s repeal.’

Did she not do that?


54 posted on 01/09/2025 5:58:30 PM PST by Fuzz
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To: Jane Long

“Bryant used homophobic tropes about recruitment of children and child molestation...”

Do you really think that that sentence is unbiased?

Ever heard of Disney??


55 posted on 01/09/2025 6:01:39 PM PST by odawg
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To: Fuzz

This sentence clearly portrays Anita as homophobic. In other words she hated and was afraid of gays.

This sentence was used in a biased and pejorative manner.

Do you think she was homophobic? In a derogatory manner used by the leftists to insult you and I?


56 posted on 01/09/2025 6:02:53 PM PST by Responsibility2nd (Climate Change is Real. Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall.)
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To: Borges

Me too. And when we read Anita was homophobic - this entire article is biased. Against her.


57 posted on 01/09/2025 6:04:16 PM PST by Responsibility2nd (Climate Change is Real. Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

Ah. Ok. The objection is to the term homophobic.

Got it.

She did do all those things though.


58 posted on 01/09/2025 6:05:08 PM PST by Fuzz
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To: Borges

RIP pretty lady. You will be remembered for your strength and bravery in taking a stand against a moral assault on this country that has spread in the worst way.......


59 posted on 01/09/2025 6:07:08 PM PST by Dawgreg
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To: odawg

I read it as she did connect homo activities to recruitment of children and child molestation.

Where’s the bias? The word homophobic?


60 posted on 01/09/2025 6:07:32 PM PST by Jane Long (Jesus is Lord!)
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