American singer, one of four sisters who made their mark across the spectrum from soul to scat, country, jazz and pop, R&B singers and songwriters. The girls, Ruth, born in 1946, Anita, 1948, Bonnie, 1953 and June, 1954, began singing along with their two older brother in the choir in an Oakland church where their folks were both ministers. They had a strict Christian upbringing and their folks had to learn about show biz along with their girls, becoming more tolerant as they grew older.
The Pointer Sisters signed a record label in 1973 and moved into major TV shows. Their first LP went gold in 1974, they were moving on their own momentum. They didn’t know much at first about contracts and clubs and during their first years when they lived on the road they usually came home broke. They kept on as they loved to sing and loved to perform.
Bonnie went solo in 1978 and the other three stayed working as The Pointer Sisters. Their hits accumulated during the ’80s along with two Grammy awards. They signed with RCA Records in 1985 with a platinum debut album, “Contact.” Their LP “Serious Slammin'” came out in 1988.
Ruth Pointer has been married five times and has five children, born in 1965, 1966, 1978 and twins in 1993. After 15 years of substance abuse, she got off booze and drugs in 1985. In 1990, she married 36-year-old Michael Sayles. As she’d had tubal legation years ago, she got pregnant with a donor egg and her husband’s sperm. Their test-tube twins, a boy and girl named Conor and Ali, arrived six weeks prematurely on 17 July 1993.
Since the 31 December 2022 death of Anita Pointer, Ruth has been the last surviving founding member of The Pointer Sisters.
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