Anita helps start fund drive

for Ohio religious TV station

PROCTORVILLE, O. (PP) ~ "My strength and energy comes from something better than Florida orange juice," Anita Bryant told some 1,100 churchgoers yesterday in the little Ohio River town.

"My vitamin C is Christ."

She spoke at the First Baptist Church while television cameras whirred and plainclothes policemen stood guard. A controversial figure since she led a recent fight against the homosexual community in Miami, Fla., Miss Bryant appeared here to help start a fund drive to finance a family-oriented religious television station.

She sang three hymns and gave her testimony amid a sprinkling of amens.

Miss Bryant called upon everyone, especially women, to "stand up and be counted. The enemy is all around us and we at this time in this country especially need real men with backbone."

Miss Bryant later said her fight against a Dade County homosexual rights ordinance had cost her 70% of her bookings. She said the na-. tion's gay groups were attempting to ruin her career. However, she told the churchgoers she was willing to sacrifice her career for her beliefs.

Her paid appearances here and at nearby Huntington, W. Va., came at the invitation of the Rev. John Ally, pastor of the church. A leader of the effort to establish the religious television station, the Rev. Mr. Ally welcomed Miss Bryant to the church, saying she "is a symbol of American

womanhood: a housewife and a mother."

Miss Bryant, in turn, called upon the women in the congregation to be subservient to their husbands. She also asked the men to be especially strong in what she called "this time of crisis."

The church is some 10 miles upriver from Huntington, where she was picketed Saturday night as she sang at a fund-raising dinner at Marshall University.

The demonstrators included members of gay rights groups, women's groups and the Ku Klux Klan. The Klansmen said they were on the Marshall campus to protect Miss Bryant, whom they said they supported.

"We love her," a Klan spokesman said.