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Obituary


EARTHA KITT is shown at England's London Airport in 1958. The entertainer, whose long career included recording, stage, film and television, died Thursday at 81. (ASSOCIATED PRESS / November 2, 1958)

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Eartha Kitt, a sultry singer, dancer and actress who rose from South Carolina cotton fields to become an international symbol of elegance and sensuality, has died, a family spokesman said.
She was 81.
Andrew Freedman said Kitt, who was recently treated at New York's Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, died in Connecticut of colon cancer.
She lived in Weston in recent years but it was uncertain if that was where she died.Kitt, a self-proclaimed "sex kitten" famous for her catlike purr, was one of America's most versatile performers, winning two "Emmy Awards" and nabbing a third nomination.
She also was nominated for several Tonys and two Grammys.Her career spanned six decades, from her start as a dancer with the famed Katherine Dunham troupe to cabarets and acting and singing on stage, in movies and on television.
She persevered through an unhappy childhood
as a mixed-race daughter of the South.
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Eartha Kitt

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Through the years, Kitt remained a picture of vitality and attracted fans less than half her age even
as she neared 80.
She appeared many times in Connecticut, in recent years
In April 2007, when she appeared in the musical "All About Us" in Westport Country Playhouse,
The Courant's review said Kitt "purrs, struts and magnetizes
as the fortune telling Esmerelda, a woman who predicts
disaster in 'Rain,' her voice dropping to milk the comic potential.
"Last December she was at Hartford's XL Center, not performing, but
getting singer Miley Cyrus' autograph for her granddaughters.
She told The Courant that in Connecticut, "the people were wonderful.
But I think people take you as you are, if you're not the kind of person who is snobbish about
anything. Which I'm not. I'm very down to earth.
Very much what my name says. Earthy.
"When her book "Rejuvenate," a guide to staying fit, was published in 2001, Kitt was featured on the cover in a long, curve-hugging black dress with a figure that some 20-year-old women would envy.
Kitt also wrote three autobiographies.
Once dubbed the "most exciting woman in the world" by Orson Welles, she spent much of her life single, though brief romances with the rich and famous peppered her younger years.
After becoming a hit singing "Monotonous" in the Broadway revue "New Faces of 1952," Kitt appeared in "Mrs. Patterson" in 1954 and 1955.
Her first album, "RCA Victor Presents Eartha Kitt," came out in 1954, featuring such songs as "I Want To Be Evil," "C'est Si Bon" and the saucy gold digger's theme song "Santa Baby," revived on radio each Christmas.
In 1996, she was nominated for a Grammy for her album "Back in Business." She also had been nominated
for the 1969 children's record "Folk Tales of the Tribes of Africa.
"In movies, Kitt starred opposite Nat King Cole in 1958's " St. Louis Blues" and appeared in "Boomerang" and "Harriet the Spy" in the 1990s.
On television, she was the sexy Catwoman on the popular " Batman" series in 1967-68, replacing Julie Newmar, who originated the role. A guest appearance on "I Spy" brought Kitt an Emmy nomination in 1966.
The "Batman" series came to an end about the same time as Kitt's TV career. In an incident greatly publicized at the time, Kitt mentioned to Lady Bird Johnson at a White House luncheon that she was not pleased with how things were going in Vietnam. For four years afterward, Kitt performed almost exclusively overseas. She was investigated by the FBI and CIA, which allegedly found her to be foul-mouthed and promiscuous.
"I would not like to think my political stance kept me out of work, even though
I know that is what happened," she told The Courant in 1995. " President Johnson called
the network and said, 'I don't want to see that woman's face anywhere!
' That's according to my CIA dossier."Kitt earned Tony nominations for the
musical "Timbuktu!" in 1978 and "The Wild Party" in 2000.As recently as October 2003, she was on Broadway in a revival of "Nine."•An Associated Press report was included in this story.
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