Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

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
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-91 next last
To: Responsibility2nd

Yep...that word ... homophobic IS biased.

My mistake for overlooking that word.

I meant, overall .... not TOO biased for a lefty outlet.

Thx.


61 posted on 01/09/2025 6:09:50 PM PST by Jane Long (Jesus is Lord!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]

To: Fuzz

What she did was not homophobic in the way leftists use that term as an insult against us.

On the other hand, we normal people need to be homophobic in that we hate and we fear the evil agenda that queers have in store for our children.


62 posted on 01/09/2025 6:10:03 PM PST by Responsibility2nd (Climate Change is Real. Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: Jane Long

Overall the article seemed unbiased. But liberals always show their true colors


63 posted on 01/09/2025 6:11:19 PM PST by Responsibility2nd (Climate Change is Real. Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 61 | View Replies]

To: Responsibility2nd

Deadline. Left of Center.

https://www.perplexity.ai/search/is-deadline-a-liberal-site-jy.6d19QR7mYsFU_hICcXQ


64 posted on 01/09/2025 6:13:36 PM PST by Responsibility2nd (Climate Change is Real. Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: Responsibility2nd

You’re too sensitive.


65 posted on 01/09/2025 6:15:52 PM PST by Fuzz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies]

To: Fuzz

Is that so? Then I assume you wear the term homophobic proudly.

But beware..... There’s always homo’s who want to rape you.


66 posted on 01/09/2025 6:24:20 PM PST by Responsibility2nd (Climate Change is Real. Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 65 | View Replies]

To: God luvs America

Apparently she died on December 16.


67 posted on 01/09/2025 6:24:47 PM PST by Coronal
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: billorites

https://www.discogs.com/master/2789453-Anita-Bryant-The-Songs-And-Stories-Of-The-Orange-Bird

I sold one of these records for $70 recently.


68 posted on 01/09/2025 6:26:18 PM PST by Sicvee (Sicvee)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Responsibility2nd

Yes. They have to let their true colors seep out, somehow/some way.


69 posted on 01/09/2025 6:26:57 PM PST by Jane Long (Jesus is Lord!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: Responsibility2nd

‘ Is that so? Then I assume you wear the term homophobic proudly.’

Naw. I don’t give a f**k either way.

‘But beware..... There’s always homo’s who want to rape you.’

lol. A prime example of a homophobic statement that there ever was.


70 posted on 01/09/2025 6:27:30 PM PST by Fuzz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]

To: Fuzz

It was homophobic in that I used it to mock you and your indifference to the gay agenda.

But I see that comprehension is not your strong suit. So go ahead and make another senseless and meaningless comment.

You have my permission.


71 posted on 01/09/2025 6:38:45 PM PST by Responsibility2nd (Climate Change is Real. Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies]

To: Borges

David Allen Coe made a song about her. If you don’t know, don’t look it up. You’ve been warned.


72 posted on 01/09/2025 6:39:14 PM PST by FrankRizzo890
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FrankRizzo890

I’ve looked up the origins of Coe’s songs.

Funny thing is - he claims he is not racist!


73 posted on 01/09/2025 6:46:51 PM PST by Responsibility2nd (Climate Change is Real. Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 72 | View Replies]

To: Responsibility2nd

‘It was homophobic in that I used it to mock you and your indifference to the gay agenda.’

Where was the attempt at mocking? That gay people want to rape me?

‘But I see that comprehension is not your strong suit. So go ahead and make another senseless and meaningless comment.’

Ok. You must have some regrets about experimenting with other dudes when you were younger and are lashing out to prove your manhood.

How’s that for some meaningless bs?

‘You have my permission.’

As if I need that. That’s something an arrogant prick would say.


74 posted on 01/09/2025 6:49:24 PM PST by Fuzz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 71 | View Replies]

To: Responsibility2nd

I guess we know what Cardinal Robert “Bend Over Bob” McElroy’s FR screen name is now...


75 posted on 01/09/2025 7:10:23 PM PST by kiryandil (No one in AZ that voted for Trump voted for Gallego )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 71 | View Replies]

To: Borges
She was as sweet and bright as the orange juice she sponsored.

What a horrible shame what the freaks and queers did to her.

Intolerance hell! Right is right.

76 posted on 01/09/2025 7:20:09 PM PST by Sequoyah101 (Donald John Trump. First man to be Elected to the Presidency THREE times since FDR.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Borges

She was right.


77 posted on 01/09/2025 8:03:00 PM PST by eccentric
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Borges

She tried to warn US but the gay controlled media canceled her.


78 posted on 01/09/2025 8:30:44 PM PST by fella ("As it was before Noah so shall it be again," )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Borges

I thought she died years ago. I must have her mixed up with someone else.


79 posted on 01/09/2025 9:24:52 PM PST by roving (Deplorable MAGA Garbage )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Responsibility2nd

I believe he was just making an album to try to offend as many people as he could.


80 posted on 01/09/2025 9:45:26 PM PST by FrankRizzo890
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 73 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-91 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson