Died December 16: Singer, Orange Juice Pitchwoman & Anti-Gay Campaigner Was 84

RIP. https://deadline.com/2025/01/anita-bryant-dead-anti-gay-activist-singer-1236253063/

Born on March 25, 1940, in Barnsdall, Oklahoma, Bryant grew up in a devoutly Christian family, with her love of music and singing leading to her own TV show at the age of 12, according to the obituary. At 18 she was crowned Miss Oklahoma, and would soon appear on the CBS variety show hosted by Arthur Godfrey and the Dick Clark-hosted American Bandstand.

In 1971, Bryant sang at the Super Bowl. She would cohost the nationally televised segment of the Orange Bowl Parade for nine years, but her public profile – not to mention that of orange juice – had truly surged in 1969 when she became a spokeswoman for the Florida Citrus Commission. In commercials that often featured the animated “Orange Bird” character, Bryant sang the earworm jingle “Come to the Florida Sunshine Tree” and made the tagline “Breakfast without orange juice is like a day without sunshine” a national catchphrase. Another was that OJ is “not just for breakfast anymore.”

Her ties to Florida prompted her to become a leading voice opposing a 1977 Dade County ordinance that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Spearheading a coalition called Save Our Children, Bryant used homophobic tropes about recruitment of children and child molestation in a campaign that led to the ordinance’s repeal.

Bryant also became the frequent butt of jokes on late-night talk shows (particularly in the monologues of Johnny Carson), on Saturday Night Live and The Carol Burnett Show, in sitcoms such as Golden Girls and Designing Women and in Armistead Maupin’s 1980 novel More Tales of the City. Her reputation all but synonymous with intolerance, her show business career evaporated, and by the late 1990s she had filed for bankruptcy.