Friday, December 26, 2008

In Memoriam: Eartha Kitt

Ms. Eartha Kitt
(Jan. 17, 1927-Dec. 25, 2008)


My family and I were just calming down from all of the Christmas Day festivities when we heard on the news that Ms. Earth Kitt had passed away from cancer. Everyone literally let out a gasp or a sad sigh at the news.

I'm pretty sure my first recollection of Ms. Kitt was watching the reruns of the old school Batman TV show. I thought it was so cool that Catwoman was a woman of Color--especially since we all know Batman had a thing for Catwoman! Her rendition of Santa Baby just cannot be duplicated.

"Santa Baby" Christmas 2006
(sidenote: Can I have legs like that when I get to be her age? WOW!)

Even more important about Ms. Kitt was that she was a woman who was not afraid to speak her mind. She was blackballed in 1968 for speaking out against the Vietnam War, but continued as a major performing presence in Europe. She didn't return to the US until ten years later, and all for speaking what many would call the truth today.

I didn't even know Earth Kitt had her own website until today when I was searching for a picture of her for this post. You can read her bio here. And as is always the case, my girl Afrobella has written a fitting post in tribute to Ms. Kitt. We have truly lost an amazing talent. May God Bless your soul, Ms. Kitt. Rest in peace.

2 comments:

L. Denise said...

This is still unreal to me... I figured she'd outlive us all!

supersize spanishfly said...

She was an Icon, she was daring, she was one of my great influences, my signature Meow! is all thanks to Eartha, she will always be Catwoman, the sleek deep husky voiced vixen, she will always be forever in my mind young beautiful and sexxxy, who could forget her as Lady Eloise in Boomerang opposite Eddie Murphy or even in 2008 she sang Sant Baby for The Bushes and still had that sex appeal at 81 and wore her signature thigh high slit slinky clingy dress. Oh Eartha, you and your radiant energy will be missed