Eartha Kitt, Sultry 'Santa Baby' Singer, Dies
Eartha Kitt, an Emmy-winning performer famous for 'Santa Baby' and a catlike purr, dies at 81
By POLLY ANDERSON Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK December 25, 2008 (AP) http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=6528459
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/26/arts/26kitt.html?_r=1&hp
http://www.last.fm/music/Eartha+Kitt
http://www.last.fm/music/Eartha+Kitt/+images
Eartha Mae Kitt (born January 17, 1927), actress, singer, and cabaret star whose mother was African American and Cherokee, and whose father was a White-American.
She was born out of wedlock, as would have to be the case given the laws regarding miscegenation at the time, in tiny North, South Carolina, but jokes about the fact that many audiences assume her to be from somewhere more exotic.
EARTHA MAE'S CHILDHOOD
Eartha Mae does not know how old she is (her birth was not recorded) and only has a vague sense of any relationship with her mother. Eartha Mae has a few memories of her early childhood back to the time when as she said, "I don't remember being able to talk" (p.2). Eartha Mae, Pearl (her half-sister) and their mother were homeless and lived under the pines trees in South Carolina. At night, Eartha Mae's mother covered them with pine straw to keep them warm. They ate food that they found in the forest, or that they had begged from one person or another, or, in desperation, that they stole. Eartha Mae's mother wandered about begging for food and shelter for her children and for herself. They were often rebuffed by African-Americans because Eartha Mae was a "yella gal" (mixed blood). Eartha Mae's mother was African-American and she believes her father was white (p.1-4) and that she also is part Cherokee Indian (p.170). With each rejection, the message to not exist as "the yella gal" became louder and clearer. Eventually, Eartha Mae's mother gave her children up to relatives in order to be with the man she loved. Eartha Mae remembering seeing her mother leave, arm and arm with a black man and instinctively knew that she would never see her again. Eartha Mae recalls watching her mother leave them (Eartha Mae had been instructed to sweep the yard): "I stood in silence with some kind of long stick in my hands- it must have been a broom- and the movement of my body slowly swept the leaves closer to the plants as though I had been hypnotized. My movement continued to sweep my hurt under the bushes. Now I knew Moma was gone forever. I did not cry. I could not cry. I would not cry. My soul was hurt and lost" (p.7). This broom became her only comfort for a while: it gave her "something to hold on to"(p.8). Eartha Mae's mother left her and Pearl with their Aunt Rosa, her husband, and Aunt Rosa's teenage grandchildren, Gracie and Willie. Eartha Mae was to work for her "keep". Gracie and Willie beat Eartha Mae with a peach switch until she was bloody many times just for the fun of it, while laughing and commenting, "Damn, you're yella all over, ain't cha?" (p.10). They threatened her not to tell anyone that they beat her or they would beat her again. She refused to cry during these beatings sensing it would have given them more pleasure. Later, Gracie sexually abused Eartha Mae but was interrupted upon hearing her family returning from an outing. Eartha Mae frequently visualized her mother's image in her mind's eye for comfort but remained tormented by mother's abandonment of her for the rest of her life (p.11).
Eartha Mae did see her mother one more time: Her mother was on her "death bed". "`Moma!' I cried in my soul, but no tears reached my eyes. Still in silence, I was taken from her bedside by some women. A voice clicked in my brain: `Eartha Mae, you're so still- don't you wanna cry?' this voice haunted me. I did not like it. `Eartha Mae, you're so still'. They sat me in a chair by the fireplace and they all looked at me. `She's so still, she's not crying. She's too still,' the voice said, digging deeper and deeper into my brain... So Moma had gone. Suddenly, as I gazed at the ceiling, I felt her presence over me" (p.23).
Eartha Mae believes her mother's husband had her mother poisoned to get rid of her (p.25).
Eartha Mae later went to live with her Aunt Mamie, her mother's sister, in New York City when she was about 10-12 years old. To Eartha Mae's relief her Aunt Mamie was the same color as she. Eartha Mae was experiencing "culture shock" in the big city (p.29). She was beat by her Aunt Mamie and suffered a black eye for eating her aunt's chocolates. She had not eaten them and her aunt found them later where she had hid them but her aunt never apologized for beating her wrongly (p.33). Her aunt moved a lot and they finally ended up staying with her aunt's lover. Eartha Mae did well in school, the church choir, and with piano lessons. A teacher, Mrs. Bishop sent Eartha Mae to audition for the New York School of Performing Arts and she was accepted to the school (p.32-36).
Eartha Mae had run away from her aunt's house several times and was brought back. During those times, she "picked the garbage cans, slept on rooftops, and rode the subways..." (p.124).
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