Eartha Kitt stood alone. There had never been anyone even remotely like her. 

She was one of the first “sex kittens” (and we do not use the term disparagingly). She sang with a voice no one could ever forget, she purred, she teased, she cooed, she danced. She enchanted her audiences for over six decades. 

Kitt, 81, died on Thursday, Dec. 25, in New York. She had been battling cancer. In true old school, the-show-must-go-on fashion, she had continued to work. A special for PBS had recently been taped and is expected to be aired in February.  Once described as “the most exciting woman in the world” by legendary director/screenwriter/actor Orson Welles, Eartha Mae Kitt was born on Jan. 17, 1927, in South Carolina. She had always said her mother was Black and her father was part Dutch and part German, and that he had raped her mother. 

There was a lot of trauma and uncertainty in Kitt’s childhood, but by the late 1940s she had not only begun to focus on a career in show business, but also had dared to audition for the famed Katherine Dunham dance company, even though she had no formal training. She was accepted. 

KITT ALSO launched a recording career and had a string of hits in the 1950s, including “Just an Old Fashioned Girl,” “Let’s Do It” and her two most famous songs, “C’est si bon” and the holiday classic, “Santa Baby.”
 
She made her stage debut in an Orson Welles production titled “Dr. Fautus.” She portrayed Helen of Troy. Not long after, she was chosen to be a part of a revue called “New Faces of 1952.” 

She was introduced to films in 1958, in a movie titled “The Mark of the Hawk,” opposite another rising star, Sidney Poitier. 

Eartha Kitt, who spoke several languages, became a major worldwide star, appearing in the finest nightclubs and frequently on television.

New fans were added in the mid-1960s when she was chosen for the role of Catwoman on the wildly popular “Batman” TV series. It was perfect casting because Kitt was in many ways “cat-like.” She devoured the part. 

BUT THERE was great controversy in 1968 when Eartha Kitt spoke out against the Vietnam war during a luncheon at the White House. It reportedly made the president’s wife, Lady Bird Johnson, cry. President Lyndon Johnson was furious as were a lot of other important people, both within and outside of government. 

“When the people who are responsible for our country ask you a direct question, I expect them to accept a direct answer,” she said. “My recipe for life is not being afraid of myself, of what I think.” 

Suddenly, it was much harder for Eartha Kitt to find work in the United States. When people said she was blackballed, she would correct them by explaining, “No, I was ‘White-balled’ because it came from the White House.” 

She subsequently primarily worked overseas. However, in 1978 she made a much-celebrated return in the glitzy hit Broadway musical “Timbuktu!” and has seldom been out of the public eye since.  Eartha Kitt was a consummate entertainer, a perfect example of what show business is all about, and she will be fondly remembered, always.