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Eartha Kitt was born on a cotton plantation in South Carolina in 1927. Eartha was conceived when her mother of Cherokee and African American descent was raped by a white man. Eartha was raised by a relative Anna Mae Riley who she believed to be her mother. When Anna took up with a black man he would not accept Eartha because of her light coloring. She was sent to New York City where she would move in with her biological mother Mamie Kitt.
It was in New York City where she would begin her singing career in the Katherine Dunham Company.
She would go on to record “Santa Baby” on of the most popular and recognizable Christmas hits of all time. Orson Welles found her to be delightful and cast her in several productions. Welles said Kitt was “the most exciting woman in the world.”
Kitt suffered a career setback when she spoke her mind during a White House luncheon. Lady Bird Johnson asked Kitt what her feelings were on the Vietnam War (and apparently wasn’t prepared for the honest, ass-kissingless response she received from a mixed race woman conceived of a rape in the rural south- pre-Civil Rights movement). Kitt stated: “The children of America are not rebelling for no reason. They are not hippies for no reason at all. We don’t have what we have on Sunset Boulevard for no reason. They are rebelling against something. There are so many things burning the people of this country, particularly mothers. They feel they are going to raise sons-and I know what it’s like and you have children of your own Mrs. Johnson-we raise children and send them to war.”
Kitt was also an early activist for homosexual rights and marriage equality, she appeared at many GLBT civil rights events.
Eartha Kitt died of colon cancer in 2008- somewhat ironically on Christmas Day. In 2009 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences excluded her from their “In Memoriam” montage.