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Anita Jane Hobson (Bryant)

Also Known As: "Anita Green"
Birthdate:
Birthplace: Barnsdall, Osage County, Oklahoma, United States
Death: December 16, 2024 (84)
At home, Edmond, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, United States
Immediate Family:

Daughter of Warren Gene Bryant and Lenora A. Bryant
Wife of Private
Ex-wife of Bob Green
Mother of Private; Private; Private and Private

Managed by: Erin Ishimoticha
Last Updated:
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Immediate Family

About Anita Bryant

Anita Bryant was an American singer and anti-gay activist. She had three top 20 hits in the United States in the early 1960s. She was the 1958 Miss Oklahoma beauty pageant winner, and a brand ambassador from 1969 to 1980 for the Florida Citrus Commission.

From 1977 to 1980, Bryant was an outspoken opponent of gay rights in the U.S. In 1977, she ran the "Save Our Children" campaign to repeal a local ordinance in Miami-Dade County, Florida, that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Her involvement with the campaign was condemned by gay rights activists. They were assisted by many other prominent figures in music, film, and television, and retaliated by boycotting the orange juice that she promoted. Though the campaign ended successfully with a 69% majority vote to repeal the ordinance on June 7, 1977 (Dade County restored the ordinance in 1998), it permanently damaged her public image, and her contract with the Florida Citrus Commission was terminated three years later. This, as well as her later divorce from Bob Green, damaged her financially. Bryant never regained her former prominence and filed for bankruptcy twice. She died on December 16, 2024.

Family life

Bryant was born on March 25, 1940, in Barnsdall, Oklahoma, the daughter of Lenora A. (Berry) and Warren Bryant. After her parents divorced, her father went into the U.S. Army and her mother went to work as a clerk for Tinker Air Force Base, taking her children to live with their grandparents temporarily.

In 1960, Bryant married Bob Green (1931–2012), a Miami disc jockey, with whom she eventually raised four children: Robert Jr. (Bobby), Gloria, and twins Billy and Barbara. She divorced him in 1980, attracting allegations of hypocrisy from the Christian right, who cited the indissolubility of Christian marriage.

Bryant married her second husband, Charlie Hobson Dry, in 1990. They remained married until his death in 2024.

All text above via Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Sources

  • "Anita Bryant." Wikipedia, revision of 9 January 2025. < link > Accessed 9 January 2025.
  • Yang, Maya. "Anita Bryant, singer and anti-gay rights crusader, dies aged 84." The Guardian, published 9 January 2025. < link > Accessed 9 January 2025.
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Anita Bryant's Timeline

1940
March 25, 1940
Barnsdall, Osage County, Oklahoma, United States
2024
December 16, 2024
Age 84
At home, Edmond, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, United States