Remembering Eartha Kitt

Since we were on limited posting last week we missed the boat on posting about the monumental loss of Eartha Kitt. The infamous singer of Santa Baby passed away on Christmas Day this year. Eartha was a legend in her own right and a visible woman of color in a time where there weren’t many. Furthermore, as I learned recently she was also an advocate for the rights of inner city youth and openly opposed the Vietnam War right on the steps of the White House.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson shares via New American Media,

The smile on Eartha Kitt’s face was unforgettable. It belied the pain, ridicule and turmoil that she had endured after she was unceremoniously placed near the top of then President Lyndon Johnson’s enemies list. But that seemed to be the furthest thing from her mind that late spring afternoon in 1978 when she greeted me at the old Aquarius Theater in Hollywood. Kitt was in Los Angeles starring in her tour production of the musical Timbuktu. I was assigned to do a brief interview and a review of the production.
Kitt’s smile and infectious energy melted the awe and nervousness that I felt at being up close too and actually talking with an entertainment legend. Then there was the “incident.” That was the furor that Kitt ignited when she denounced the Vietnam War and poverty to Johnson at that White House luncheon in January 1968. A decade after the controversy still got the tongues wagging.
Her performance in Los Angeles was in part Kitt’s American comeback after being virtually banned in the United States after her White House outburst. Her performance was also in part a brash effort to reclaim the luster that had made her virtually a household name and an icon in the entertainment world in the 1950s an early 1960s.

Eartha might have sang about old fashioned girls, but she couldn’t have been further from that. I keep thinking in light of current events how few celebrities stick their neck out and actually take a stance on unjust wars. She will be missed.