Anita Bryant’s name isn’t known to every generation of today’s society. I recall the Post-Tribune newspaper subscription my parents had in the late 1990s used a brief advertising campaign with display ads that featured photos of “famous squares,” including Bryant, former vice president Spiro Agnew and others, and likened that “more popular squares” could be found with the crosswords and puzzles featured in the newspaper’s daily comics and puzzle page. Along with Orville Redenbacher, Marie Osmond, Phyllis Diller and Chubby Checker, Bryant ranked as one of my first public figure interviews as a young reporter. It was The Hollywood Reporter among the major media outlets on Thursday to break the news, using the tribute obituary headline: “Anita Bryant, Singer and Crusader Against Gay Rights, Dies at 84”. The first paragraph of the publication’s obit reads: “Anita Bryant, the pop singer and Oklahoma beauty queen who gained fame by convincing America that a ‘breakfast without orange juice is like a day without sunshine’ before seeing her popularity plummet as she railed against gay rights, has died. She was 84. Bryant died Dec. 16 at her home in Edmond, Oklahoma, her family announced.” Singer Anita Bryant performs a musical number onstage at her new namesake theater in Branson, Missouri in June 1995, a state-of-the-art performing arts center previously built and operated as Wayne Newton’s theater. (Philip Potempa/for Post-Tribune) Amazingly, in today’s world of instant communication and social media, news of her death a month ago was kept secret at the wishes of her family to assure respect and privacy in contrast to the public life and controversy she accepted for half a century. By using her married last name from her second marriage to the late Charlie Dry, her death was kept veiled until the family allowed the funeral home to release her official obituary in The Oklahoman newspaper Thursday. It was likely not coincidental that news of her death came the same day as Thursday’s Orange Bowl game win by Notre Dame and the earlier parade events in Miami. It’s the same annual pomp and circumstance Bryant emceed, usually opposite Joe Garagiola, with commentary and announcer description of floats and marching bands, before traditionally singing “The Star Spangled Banner” at the start of the game’s kickoff. I interviewed Bryant at least four times during my journalism career, with the first encounter and interview being in June 1991 when I was 20 years old and doing my Valparaiso University college internship at The Vidette-Messenger in Valparaiso. I had been on a weeklong vacation with my parents in Bella Vista, Arkansas, when my mom spotted a billboard for The Anita Bryant Theater in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Mom, who said my dad’s older brother, my Uncle Joe, always thought Mom resembled Bryant’s looks, suggested we detour and see her show and that I should try to interview Bryant. I had no idea who she was or what her claim to fame was, but my parents (mostly Mom) filled in the gaps. My interview request was granted by her manager husband, Charlie Dry, who was on the property and working at the box office. Bryant was cautious yet very kind and inviting. She was smiling and patient with me as a young novice reporter. Another interview with Bryant came a few years later in 1995, after she purchased singer Wayne Newton’s state-of-the-art theater in Branson, Missouri, and rebranded it for her own show and theater. When we chatted this time, I recall we laughed about how the lobby carpet of her “new” theater still boasted a custom pattern featuring the initials WN emblazoned on every carpet square. Columnist Philip Potempa, at age 20, poses with singer Anita Bryant as she displays her recently released autobiography in July 1991 in the lobby of her namesake theater in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. (Peggy Potempa/provided) While Bryant said she lost many of her show business friends during the controversy and media storm clouds that hovered around her from 1977 through 1980 when she spoke out against gay rights, she said some pals stayed devoted like Bob Hope, Pat Boone and crown winners from her beauty contest days when she won a 1959 runner-up for the Miss America title. At the height of her career as the spokesperson for Florida orange juice, she told me she earned as much as $100,000 a year. Though not placing direct blame, she also told me her first husband, sportscaster Bob Green, and others were the driving force that pushed her into the spotlight as the unlikely “poster face” pushing against gay rights. When the couple divorced in May 1980 after 20 years, she faced more backlash, this time from her Christian counterparts, assigning sin to her decision to divorce. “I sold our family’s $300,000, 25-room Spanish-style home in Florida and decided I needed to move on in my life,” Bryant told me. “Besides my children, who are most important, everything was gone. My commercial endorsements, television and singing career. But I could finally stand up and be counted for who I was, without others telling me who they thought I was or should be. I learned I need to be who I am and not what someone else wanted me to be.” Bryant autographed a copy of her 1991 hardcover autobiography titled “A New Day” for me and included a bible verse with her signature and inscription for Philippians 4:13 which reminds: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” In my second published cookbook “More From the Farm” published in 2007, I included Bryant’s holiday baking recipe for “Gingerbread Men.” During the baking steps, I added a dose of my own humor and warned, “when placing cookie dough cut-outs on baking sheet, as Anita would caution, don’t let the gingerbread men touch.” A second recipe from Bryant is for bran muffins, a recipe she was given by her friend Rev. Billy Graham’s wife. The muffins are easy, moist and hearty for a fast breakfast paired with a glass of Florida orange juice, of course. Columnist Philip Potempa has published four cookbooks and is the director of marketing at Theatre at the Center. He can be reached at [email protected] or mail your questions: From the Farm, PO Box 68, San Pierre, Ind. 46374. Mrs. Billy Graham’s Bran Muffins Makes 24 muffins 6 cups raisin bran flakes cereal 2 cups boiling water 3 cups sugar 1 cup vegetable shortening 4 eggs, beaten 1 quart buttermilk 1 teaspoon salt 4 teaspoons soda 5 cups flour Directions: 1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. 2. Combine 2 cups of cereal and boiling water in a bowl, stir well, and let cool. 3. Cream sugar and shortening, add eggs, beat well, stir in buttermilk, salt and soda. 4. Fold in flour, remaining 4 cups cereal and the cooled cereal mixture. 5. Bake in tins for 15 to 20 minutes.