Anita Bryant

Personal

Vocation

Lifestyle

Notable

Traits

Family

American Beauty Queen and entertainer who was named Miss Oklahoma at 19, and then the runner-up for Miss America. She married in 1960 and had four kids. As a singer, Bryant was a foil for Bob Hope on Christmas tours for the Armed Forced from 1960-1967, as she became a recording artist and was active on TV commercials. Bryant was voted to the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1966 and voted Woman of the Year in 1970. A Christian activist, she accompanied the Billy Graham crusades and aroused a storm of controversy in 1977 by publicly opposing gay rights in Florida, raising her holy banner against "the ungodly." Gays retaliated by strutting the streets of Miami in T-shirts that read, "Squeeze a fruit for Anita." Bryant won the battle but lost the war when her bookings and record deals dropped off and she lost her contract as spokeswoman for the Florida Citrus Commission. In 1980, her 20-year marriage ended in divorce. The Mother of Family Values took her four kids and retreated back to Tulsa. A decade later, Bryant married her childhood sweetheart, Charlie Dry, a former astronaut test crewman. She moved with him to a 59-acre spread in Arkansas, where she was still righteous. When she relaunched her career in Eureka Springs, opening the Anita Bryant Theater she billed herself as America's Sweetheart on the marquee. Unfortunately for her, Eureka Springs is widely known as the gay capital of the Ozarks, and she was not their sweetheart. When no one came to her show, she moved it to Branson, MO, where she was more popular. In May 1997, Bryant and Dry filed bankruptcy in Fayetteville, AR to reorganize debts that ranged from $1 million to $10 million in value. Link to Wikipedia biography