Anita Bryant, Whose Anti-Gay Politics Undid a Singing Career, Is Dead at 84
Anita Bryant, the singer and former beauty queen who had a robust and flourishing music career, including hit songs like “Paper Roses,” in the 1960s and ’70s, but whose opposition to gay rights — she called homosexuality “an abomination” — virtually destroyed her career, died on Dec.
16. She was 84. The death, at her home in Edmond, Okla., was caused by cancer, her son William Green said. The family placed an obituary in The Oklahoman, a newspaper in Oklahoma City, on Thursday.
Ms. Bryant was just 18 when she won the Miss Oklahoma beauty title and was named second runner-up in the Miss America pageant.
She promptly turned that success into a lucrative show business career. For almost two decades, she had a smooth run — entertaining troops on U.S.O.
