Anita Bryant, the former Miss Oklahoma, a Grammy-nominated singer and noted supporter of orange juice and other products who was known for the rest of her life as an outspoken opponent of gay rights, has died. She is 84 years old.
Bryant died on December 16 at his home in Edmond, Oklahoma, according to a statement posted by his family on a news website The Oklahoman Thursday. The family did not list a cause of death.
Bryant, a native of Barnsdale, began singing as a child and by the age of 12 she was hosting her own local television show. In 1958, she was named Miss Oklahoma and soon began a successful recording career. Her hit singles include “Til I Got You,” “Paper Roses” and “My Little Corner of the World.” She is a lifelong Christian and her albums received two Grammy nominations for Best Sacred Performance and one for Best Spiritual Performance Anita Bryant…Naturally.
By the late 1960s, she was one of the artists on Bob Hope’s USO tour for troops overseas, sang at the White House, and performed at the 1968 Democratic and Republican National Conventions. A high-profile commercial spokesperson, her Florida Orange Juice commercial’s slogan was: “A day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine.”
But in the late 1970s, her life and career took a dramatic new path. Dissatisfied with the cultural changes of the time, Bryant led a successful campaign to repeal an ordinance in Miami-Dade County, Florida, that prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation. With the support of the Rev. Jerry Falwell and others, Bryant and her Save Our Children coalition continue to campaign against gay rights across the country, denouncing the gay community’s “abnormal lifestyle” and calling gays “Human garbage”.
In return, Bryant became the target of a lot of criticism. Activists organized boycotts of products she endorsed, designed T-shirts that mocked her and named a drink after her – a screwdriver variant with apple juice instead of orange juice. During an appearance in Iowa, an activist shoved a piece of pie in her face. Her entertainment career declined, her marriage to first husband Bob Green collapsed, and she later filed for bankruptcy.
In Florida, her legacy is challenged and continued. The ban on sex discrimination was reinstated in 1998. Associated Press “She won the campaign, but she lost the battle in time,” she said on Friday (January 10). But Rand also acknowledged the “parental rights” movement, which has recently sparked protests in Florida by Moms Against Liberty and others. A wave of book bans and anti-LGBTQ+ laws led by conservative groups.
“This has everything to do with what’s happening today,” Rand said.
Bryant spent the rest of her life in Oklahoma, where she led Anita Bryant Ministries International. Her second husband, NASA test astronaut Charles Hobson Derry, died last year. She is survived by four children, two stepdaughters and seven grandchildren, according to her family.
