Anita Bryant, singer and orange juice spokesperson who rallied against gay rights, dies at 84

NEW YORK —  Anita Bryant, a former Miss Oklahoma and popular singer who became known over the second half of her life for her outspoken opposition to gay rights, has died. She was 84.

Bryant died Dec. 16 at her home in Edmond, Okla., according to a statement posted by her family to news site the Oklahoman on Thursday. The family did not list a cause of death.

Bryant was a Barnsdell native who began singing at an early age and was just 12 when she hosted her own local television show. She was named Miss Oklahoma in 1958 and soon began a successful recording career, her hit singles including “Till There Was You,” “Paper Roses” and “My Little Corner of the World.”

By the late 1960s, she was among the entertainers joining Bob Hope on his USO tours for troops overseas, had sung at the White House and performed at the national conventions for both the Democrats and Republicans in 1968. She also became a highly visible spokesperson for various products, notably for Florida orange juice.

But in the late 1970s, her life and career began a dramatically new path. A lifelong Christian, Bryant led a successful campaign to repeal an ordinance in Florida’s Miami-Dade County that would have prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation. Supported by the Rev. Jerry Falwell among others, she continued to oppose gay rights around the country and became the object of much criticism in return.

Activists organized boycotts against products she endorsed, designed T-shirts mocking her and named a drink for her — a variation of the screwdriver that replaced orange juice with apple juice.

Her entertainment career declined, her marriage to first husband Bob Green broke up, and she later filed for bankruptcy.

More recently, she led Anita Bryant Ministries International. Her second husband, NASA test astronaut Charles Hobson Dry, died last year. According to her family’s statement, she is survived by four children, two stepdaughters and seven grandchildren.