Anita Pointer, the last surviving founding member of the three-time Grammy-winning group the Pointer Sisters, died of cancer on Saturday. She was 74.
Pointer’s group had numerous hits on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, including “Jump (For My Love),” “Neutron Dance,” “Fire,” “Slow Hand,” and “I’m So Excited.”
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“She was surrounded by family at the time of her death,” the singer’s publicist, Roger Neal, said in a statement.
“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 & Bonnie, and at peace,” her publicist said on behalf of the Pointer family.
Anita Pointer, the fourth of six children, was born in Oakland, California, on Jan. 23, 1948. Three of the Pointer siblings — Anita, Bonnie, and June — formed the Pointer Sisters group in 1969.
Anita and Bonnie Pointer rose to fame after writing their first major Grammy-winning hit, “Fairytale,” in 1974, which topped both country and pop music charts. The Pointer Sisters was the first African American group to perform at the prestigious Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tennessee. The “King of Rock and Roll” Elvis Presley, recorded a cover of their song “Fairytale” and started singing it in his concerts in the 1970s.
The Pointer Sisters started to be featured in major movie soundtracks and made their first film debut singing in the 1976 feature film Car Wash starring Richard Pryor.
Their hit song “Neutron Dance” laid the soundtrack for a famous chase scene in Eddie Murphy’s Beverly Hills Cop 2 movie in 1984.
Their hit song “I’m So Excited” was featured in the soundtrack of numerous 1980s and 1990s films, including National Lampoons Vacation (1983), Working Girl (1988), Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993), The Nutty Professor (1996), and more.
The hit song “Jump” was culturally iconic and made its way into a Saturday Night Live sketch in 2004 when then-businessman Donald Trump appeared in a sketch called “Donald Trump’s House of Wings” in which he promoted a fictional Buffalo wing joint while creating a parody of the song.
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Anita was the last remaining member of the trio. June Pointer suffered a stroke in 2006 and later that year died of cancer. Bonnie Pointer died in her Los Angeles home at age 69 in 2020.
Pointer’s death on Saturday adds to the list of numerous cultural groundbreakers and trendsetters passing in the final week of 2022, including television journalist Barbara Walters, Brazilian soccer legend Pele, Pope Benedict XVI, and groundbreaking punk rock fashion designer Vivienne Westwood.
