2008: ‘Santa Baby’ Singer Eartha Kitt Dies
Boris Carmi/National Library of IsraelEartha Kitt during a visit to Israel in 1957.
On Dec. 25, 2008, the world lost another musical icon with the death of Eartha Kitt. She passed away at age 81 from colon cancer.
Kitt began her entertainment career in the early 1940s as part of the Katherine Dunham Company, the first all-Black modern dance troupe. She released several hit songs in the 1950s, and she played the role of Catwoman in the final season of the Batman television series.
She’s perhaps best remembered for her 1953 rendition of “Santa Baby,” which remains a staple on Christmas radio stations to this day.
Public DomainEartha Kitt as Catwoman in the Batman TV show. 1967.
Kitt’s career took a hit after she spoke out against the Vietnam War in the 1960s, but she returned as a popular voice actress later in life. She spent her final years as an advocate for LGBT rights.
She passed away at her Connecticut home with her daughter, Kitt Shapiro, by her side. Five years after Eartha Kitt’s death, Shapiro told Mommynoire.com, “[W]hen she left, she left the world with a bang, and she left it how she lived it.”
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