How is Anita Bryant connected with Orange Juice? Association explored as anti-gay rights activist, singer dies at 84

Singer Anita Bryant, known for her anti-gay activism, has died at 84. The news was announced by Bryant's family in an obituary, adding she died at her home in Edmond, Oklahoma, on December 16, 2024. The statement read:

"May Anita’s memory and her faith in eternal life through Christ comfort all who embraced her."

Bryant was a multi-Grammy-nominated singer who became a spokesperson for the Florida Citrus Commission in 1969. She appeared in several commercials that promoted orange juice produced in the Sunshine State, pitching it as a breakfast staple.

Owing to the highly successful advertisements, its production skyrocketed until Bryant's anti-LGBTQ campaign in the late 1970s. The fallout from her activism eventually led to her career's downfall.

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Anita Bryant was inducted into the Florida Citrus Hall of Fame in 1988

Citrus promoter and anti-gay activist Anita Bryant in an orange grove. (Photo by Lynn Pelham/Getty Images)

Anita Bryant was born in Barnsdall, Oklahoma on March 25, 1940. She began singing at an early age, and by the time she was 12, she had her own TV show, The Anita Bryant Show, that aired on WKY. After graduating from the Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, she was crowned Miss Oklahoma in 1958 and was the second runner-up in the 1959 Miss America pageant.

Bryant released several albums throughout her career, including In My Little Corner of the World (1961) and The World of Lonely People (1964). Some of her best songs are Till There Was You (1959), Paper Roses (1960), and Wonderland by Night (1961).

Anita Bryant frequently joined Bob Hope on his holiday tours for the United Service Organizations and during the Vietnam War. She has performed at the White House, Democratic and Republican conventions, and even Super Bowl V in 1971.

In 1969, she became a spokeswoman for the Florida Citrus Commission and appeared in several nationally televised commercials. These ads, promoting orange juice produced in the state, featured Bryant singing Come to the Florida Sunshine Tree and saying the tagline:

"Breakfast without orange juice is like a day without sunshine."

According to Phil Hall of Cinema Crazed, the campaign caught the eye of the "wellness zeitgeist of the era," who touted its health benefits, specifically Vitamin C. In the commercials, Bryant remarked how mothers could serve orange juice "for just pennies a glass." However, she never promoted any particular brand.

A later ad campaign would see Anita Bryant interviewing passengers on a cruise who tell her they drink orange juice at any time of the day. The slogan was updated to say:

"It isn’t just for breakfast anymore!"

According to Hall, the campaign was a huge success. The singer starred in 86 TV commercials and countless print advertisements. Further, the sales of orange juice from Florida increased exponentially.

According to a June 2015 article by Disney, the Florida Citrus Commission teamed up with Disney in 1969 to create a mascot, Orange Bird, which would appear in print ads with Anita Bryant.

However, in 1977, Dade County, Florida, passed an ordinance that barred discrimination based on sexual orientation. To repeal the ordinance, Bryant started a campaign called Save Our Children. The campaign proved successful, and the anti-discrimination ordinance was repealed. Her anti-LGBTQ activism has a lasting impact that is felt even today (Ron DeSantis' "Don't Say Gay" bill).

According to an essay by Nikolai Endres for GLBTQ.com, in its aftermath, several celebrities, including Barbra Streisand, Jane Fonda, and Bette Midler, supported a nationwide boycott of Florida orange juice.

Several bumper stickers reading, "A day without human rights is like a day without sunshine," and T-shirts reading, "Squeeze a Fruit for Anita," began circulating. She was also ridiculed on comedy shows like The Carol Burnett Show (in a skit, Burnett played a self-centered and clueless Anita Bryant). Her costume included a corsage made of oranges.

Anita Bryant appeared in commercials for the Florida Citrus Commission until 1980 when her contract expired. In 1988, she was inducted into the Florida Citrus Hall of Fame.

Bryant divorced her first husband, Bob Green, in 1980, and she moved to Selma, Alabama, with three of her four children (later to Atlanta, Georgia). She married Charlie Hobson Dry in 1990.

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Per her obituary, Bryant is survived by her four children, two stepdaughters, and seven grandchildren.