Dia De Los Muertos: Eartha Kitt Dies On Christmas, Leaves With Santa, Baby

Eartha Mae Kitt, the daughter of a white plantation owner’s son and a black sharecropper’s daughter in Columbia, South Carolina, died December 25, 2008 of complications due to colon cancer. She was 81. Ms. Kitt was perhaps best known for her interpretation of the Christmas classic “Santa Baby” which was often miscredited to Marilyn Monroe and covered more recently by Madonna. But it was Ms. Kitt who defined sexy when African-American women were hardly allowed to do so.

Eartha Kitt also played the role of Catwoman in 1961 during season four of the television series Batman and hilariously seduced Eddie Murphy as Lady Eloise in 1992’s Boomerang. She was an outspoken human rights activist who was blacklisted in the late 1960’s after opposing the Vietnam war at a luncheon given by Lady Bird Johnson, but managed to revive her career the 1980’s and was performing on Broadway well into her seventies. Once described by Orson Welles as, “the most exciting woman in the world,” she will be remembered fondly by fans around the world. Enjoy a classic video of her performing “Santa Baby” below.

Earth Kitt [Wikipedia]
Eartha Kitt [IMDB]