Obituary: Anita Bryant “Wrote And Sang Of God’s Love”

January 10, 2025 Christianists

The paywall is dropped for Anita Bryant’s obituary:

Anita Bryant Dry—former Miss Oklahoma, three-time Grammy-nominated singer, Christian author, recipient of the USO Silver Medallion for Service, Veterans of Foreign Wars Leadership Gold Medallion, and Al Jolson Gold Medallion—died at her home in Edmond, Oklahoma, on Monday, December 16, 2024, surrounded by her family and friends. She was 84 years old. Anita also sang at the Super Bowl in 1971 and cohosted the nationally televised segment of the Orange Bowl Parade for nine years. She served as the TV spokesperson for Florida orange juice for nine years and for Coca-Cola for seven years.

Later in life she led Anita Bryant Ministries International, an organization encouraging others to live with faith and purpose. Such dedication extended to her family. Anita was a loving mother to her four children—Bobby, Gloria, Billy, and Barbara—and a devoted grandmother to her seven grandchildren. She loved to write Bible songs and teach them to her grandchildren when they were small. In subsequent years Anita continued to write and sing about God’s love whenever and wherever she could. May Anita’s memory and her faith in eternal life through Christ comfort all who embraced her.

From Wikipedia:

Thomas Lawrence Higgins (June 17, 1950 – November 10, 1994) was an American writer and gay rights activist credited with coining the term gay pride. He is best known for pushing a pie into the face of anti-gay activist Anita Bryant on live television in 1977.

On October 14, 1977, Higgins and his friend and fellow gay rights activist Bruce Brockway attended a televised pre-concert press conference hosted by actress Anita Bryant, who was answering questions about her plan to open a network of Anita Bryant Centers where “homosexuals could go for rehabilitation.”

During the conference Higgins got up, and pushed a banana cream pie into Bryant’s face. Afterwards he and four companions exited the studio to answer questions for the media. Bryant’s husband Bob Green noticed one of them holding an unused pie, and pressed it into his face in retaliation. Criminal charges were not filed against Higgins.

Pie for lunch, anyone?



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