The late Eartha Kitt may have only stood 5’4″ tall, weighed about a buck 0-5, and was famously known as the “sex kitten’ who seduced Santa with her words in her song, “Santa Baby” (and later seduced Eddie Murphy in Boomerang), but let’s not forget that she was also a very dedicated and outspoken social activist.

That brings us to this CIA investigation that began in the late 1960’s on Ms. Kitt. She was furious to find out that she was being investigated like she was a criminal and it all stemmed from the time she spoke out at a White House function in 1968 and made President Lyndon B. Johnson’s wife cry like a baby in front of a room full of folks. Here is what was reported in the New York Times in 1968:

Singer Eartha Kitt stunned fellow guests at a White House luncheon and left Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson in tears Thursday when she declared angrily that the Vietnam War was causing American youth to rebel in the cities.

About 50 white and Negro women invited to the White House to discuss President Johnson’s proposals to combat crime in the streets sat at their tables in embarrassed silence as Miss Kitt delivered an emotional tirade against the war.

“You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed,” she told her fellow guests. “They rebel in the street. They will take pot…and they will get high. They don’t want to go to school because they’re going to be snatched off from their mothers to be shot in Vietnam.”

Mrs. Johnson rose afterward and looked directly at the singer, who leaned against a podium. “Because there is a war on–and I pray that there will be a just and honest peace–that still doesn’t give us a free ticket not to try to work for better things such as against crime in the streets, better education, and better health for our people,” Mrs. Johnson said, her voice trembling and tears welling in her eyes.

The President had dropped in on the luncheon briefly, and answered a pointed question from Miss Kitt, but left before her outburst. Miss Kitt, her eyes flashing in defiance while she puffed on a cigarette and jabbed a finger at her startled audience, said American youth are “angry because their parents are angry…because there is a war going on that they don’t understand.” She told Mrs. Johnson that youngsters feel alienated because “they can’t get to you and they can’t get to the President, and so they rebel in the streets.”

After that, Eartha was ridiculed by a governor’s wife who was also in the audience and that forced Eartha to go even farther…after she briefly apologized:

Miss Kitt rose during a question-and-answer period afterward and apologized for speaking up if she had offended the President and his wife. But, she said, turning to the other well-dressed guests. “I have to say what is in my heart.” She said she had not walked the streets of ghettos as a crusader as some of the other guests had, but “I have lived in the gutters.”

“I’m sorry,” Mrs. Johnson replied. “I cannot understand the
things that you do. I have not lived with the background that you have. I cannot
speak as passionately or as well as you. But I think we have made advances in
these things and we will do more.”

Embed from Getty Images

Eartha shot back at Mrs. Johnson again:

“We have to realize where the truth really is,” she said, pointing her finger at the guests who sat transfixed. “The children of America are not rebelling for no reason. They are not hippies for no reason at all. We don’t have what we have on Sunset Blvd. For no reason. They are rebelling against something. There are so many things burning the people of this country, particularly mothers. They feel they are going to raise sons–and I know what it’s like, and you have children of your own, Mrs. Johnson–we raise children and send them to war.”

She said that today’s youth feels there is no reason to be a “good guy.” He would rather go to jail as a “bad guy” and avoid the draft, she said. “They feel that if they have any life, it’s best to live because they may not be here tomorrow.”

Much respect to Eartha for keeping it beyond real with Mrs. Johnson and bravely stating her thoughts, especially during an era where it was unheard of for an African American women to do such a thing. Of course Ms. Kitt faced a ton of backlash that ended up damaging her career greatly after word got out about her White House melee…

Here is what President Johnson’s pastor publicly wrote to him the following day, regarding Eartha Kitt’s words:

“I commend you for all the work you have been doing to urge more justice and opportunity, especially for Negroes, and because all the Americans are in a sense a family, I apologize for any member of that family including Negroes who are ill-mannered, stupid, and arrogant.”

Almost immediately, Eartha, who was in high demand at that time, began to feel the backlash as nightclub owners and producers she was under contract with got scared and ended her shows at their facilities. Ms. Kitt may have felt the brunt of that backlash in her pocketbook, but she still NEVER backed down from voicing her views:

“For years I went along with the idea that entertainers should not get involved with politics. Today, I realize that because of our contact with the public, we have to speak out, to make those who are responsible more aware of what is happening where they perhaps cannot see. Particularly someone like myself, who has lived the life of poverty.”

Kitt started performing in Europe after finding it hard to book gigs in America and on her return back to America in 1975 she found out the CIA had been damaging her career  and her character by allegedly spreading false rumors about her in the media and that they had her under investigation since 1968 after the Secret Service asked them to do so following her White House convo.’ Needless to say, Eartha was pissed and she didn’t hesitate to put the CIA on full blast to the media:

“This is too much. This is more than I can or will take. I am determined to do my part in stopping the gradual erosion of American freedom.

If this is not done, the day when the enemies of freedom–be they Communist, Fascist, or what have you–walk right in and take over our country will come sooner than most of us are inclined to think. As for reports of the CIA’s invasion of my right to privacy, I am insulted, disappointed, and annoyed, but I don’t find it particularly surprising. This is only one of a number of hardships that I have had to endure since making those remarks in 1968.

Following my little talk at the White House, most of my nightclub and hotel engagements in this country were canceled–even though contracts had been entered into. That I should be singled out appears, at first glance, to be puzzling. Scores of Hollywood, television, and music personalities, both American and foreign-born, have been far more critical of America’s foreign and domestic policies than I have. The difference, of course, is that I am not Barbara Howar or Jane Fonda or Candice Bergen. I am a black woman. I have always known that racism was widespread in America; after all, I spent most of my childhood in South Carolina on a cotton plantation and in the streets of Harlem. But it took the aftermath of the 1968 incident to prove to me just how deeply racial prejudice is rooted in the American national character. Because I am black, I had to be taught a lesson, and put back into my place as a singing, dancing, mindless automaton who saw no evil, did no evil, and most important, publicly spoke no evil.

In my case, the CIA apparently didn’t even have accurate information. For example, the news stories said the agency had learned I did “not associate with other black persons.” That’s nonsense. I have always taken an interest in the black community, even before it became fashionable to do so. I taught dancing at the Harlem YWCA as early as 1952, and have been teaching a dance class in Watts for almost 10 years.

I don’t regret anything that I’ve said or done. I have suffered a lot financially, but I have survived. I only have pity and sympathy for those who tucked their moral tails in between their legs and cuddled up to the Johnson and Nixon administrations’ immoral and unjust policies.”

Eartha Kitt’s name deserves to forever be immortalized next to others in history who were public warriors and stood up for what they believed for the greater good of justice for all people…no matter the cost or structural damage to the foundation of a career they’d built.

Source1, Source2, Source3

The post After Making 1st Lady Cry, Eartha Kitt Detailed How CIA Reportedly Tried To Destroy Her appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

According to the biography, “Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams,” Eartha Kitt once talked about Mrs. Cole’s extreme possessiveness over her husband, when it came to other women.

Eartha and Nat had a purely platonic friendship while working together on their film, St. Louis Blues. They were portraying the characters, “Go-Go” and composer, “W.C. Handy.”

Once filming for the movie was wrapped, Nat simply showed his appreciation to Eartha by sending her some roses and a friendly thank-you note that stated “Handy misses Go-Go.” Eartha wrote a short friendly not back to thank him, which stated “Go-Go also misses Handy.”

Embed from Getty Images

When that note got into the hands of Mrs. Cole, she allegedly was not a happy camper. So she allegedly did what any woman wanting to put another woman in her place over her man, would do- she politely read Ms. Eartha like nobody’s business…LOL! Eartha Kitt said this about Maria Cole: “She [Maria] sent me a beaded cashmere sweater as a thank-you gift with a note pinned to it that must have poisoned the pen that wrote it.’

Maria Cole’s note read: “I don’t know if you think of yourself as some kind of temptress siren but the film is over and Go-Go (you) is gone, let’s leave it that way.”

As you can see, Mrs. Cole didn’t play that! It was a good thing there was no social media back then, because we probably would have been seeing plenty of celebrity women revealing their ‘inner NeNe Leakes’ attitudes back in the day. That just makes us love these Old School celebs even more though- it shows that they were real people, just like the rest of us.

-ILoveOldSchoolMusic, Old School news with a new point of view

The post Eartha Kitt Recalled Time Natalie Cole’s Mom Reportedly Sent Her A Nasty Letter And Why appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

The late Eartha Kitt may have only stood 5’4″ tall, weighed about a buck 0-5, and was famously known as the “sex kitten’ who seduced Santa with her words in her song, “Santa Baby” (and later seduced Eddie Murphy in Boomerang), but let’s not forget that she was also a very dedicated and outspoken social activist.

That brings us to this CIA investigation that began in the late 1960’s on Ms. Kitt. She was furious to find out that she was being investigated like she was a criminal and it all stemmed from the time she spoke out at a White House function in 1968 and made President Lyndon B. Johnson’s wife cry like a baby in front of a room full of folks. Here is what was reported in the New York Times in 1968:

Singer Eartha Kitt stunned fellow guests at a White House luncheon and left Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson in tears Thursday when she declared angrily that the Vietnam War was causing American youth to rebel in the cities.

About 50 white and Negro women invited to the White House to discuss President Johnson’s proposals to combat crime in the streets sat at their tables in embarrassed silence as Miss Kitt delivered an emotional tirade against the war.

“You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed,” she told her fellow guests. “They rebel in the street. They will take pot…and they will get high. They don’t want to go to school because they’re going to be snatched off from their mothers to be shot in Vietnam.”

Mrs. Johnson rose afterward and looked directly at the singer, who leaned against a podium. “Because there is a war on–and I pray that there will be a just and honest peace–that still doesn’t give us a free ticket not to try to work for better things such as against crime in the streets, better education, and better health for our people,” Mrs. Johnson said, her voice trembling and tears welling in her eyes.

The President had dropped in on the luncheon briefly, and answered a pointed question from Miss Kitt, but left before her outburst. Miss Kitt, her eyes flashing in defiance while she puffed on a cigarette and jabbed a finger at her startled audience, said American youth are “angry because their parents are angry…because there is a war going on that they don’t understand.” She told Mrs. Johnson that youngsters feel alienated because “they can’t get to you and they can’t get to the President, and so they rebel in the streets.”

After that, Eartha was ridiculed by a governor’s wife who was also in the audience and that forced Eartha to go even farther…after she briefly apologized:

Miss Kitt rose during a question-and-answer period afterward and apologized for speaking up if she had offended the President and his wife. But, she said, turning to the other well-dressed guests. “I have to say what is in my heart.” She said she had not walked the streets of ghettos as a crusader as some of the other guests had, but “I have lived in the gutters.”

“I’m sorry,” Mrs. Johnson replied. “I cannot understand the
things that you do. I have not lived with the background that you have. I cannot
speak as passionately or as well as you. But I think we have made advances in
these things and we will do more.”

Embed from Getty Images

Eartha shot back at Mrs. Johnson again:

“We have to realize where the truth really is,” she said, pointing her finger at the guests who sat transfixed. “The children of America are not rebelling for no reason. They are not hippies for no reason at all. We don’t have what we have on Sunset Blvd. For no reason. They are rebelling against something. There are so many things burning the people of this country, particularly mothers. They feel they are going to raise sons–and I know what it’s like, and you have children of your own, Mrs. Johnson–we raise children and send them to war.”

She said that today’s youth feels there is no reason to be a “good guy.” He would rather go to jail as a “bad guy” and avoid the draft, she said. “They feel that if they have any life, it’s best to live because they may not be here tomorrow.”

Much respect to Eartha for keeping it beyond real with Mrs. Johnson and bravely stating her thoughts, especially during an era where it was unheard of for an African American women to do such a thing. Of course Ms. Kitt faced a ton of backlash that ended up damaging her career greatly after word got out about her White House melee…

Here is what President Johnson’s pastor publicly wrote to him the following day, regarding Eartha Kitt’s words:

“I commend you for all the work you have been doing to urge more justice and opportunity, especially for Negroes, and because all the Americans are in a sense a family, I apologize for any member of that family including Negroes who are ill-mannered, stupid, and arrogant.”

Almost immediately, Eartha, who was in high demand at that time, began to feel the backlash as nightclub owners and producers she was under contract with got scared and ended her shows at their facilities. Ms. Kitt may have felt the brunt of that backlash in her pocketbook, but she still NEVER backed down from voicing her views:

“For years I went along with the idea that entertainers should not get involved with politics. Today, I realize that because of our contact with the public, we have to speak out, to make those who are responsible more aware of what is happening where they perhaps cannot see. Particularly someone like myself, who has lived the life of poverty.”

Kitt started performing in Europe after finding it hard to book gigs in America and on her return back to America in 1975 she found out the CIA had been damaging her career  and her character by allegedly spreading false rumors about her in the media and that they had her under investigation since 1968 after the Secret Service asked them to do so following her White House convo.’ Needless to say, Eartha was pissed and she didn’t hesitate to put the CIA on full blast to the media:

“This is too much. This is more than I can or will take. I am determined to do my part in stopping the gradual erosion of American freedom.

If this is not done, the day when the enemies of freedom–be they Communist, Fascist, or what have you–walk right in and take over our country will come sooner than most of us are inclined to think. As for reports of the CIA’s invasion of my right to privacy, I am insulted, disappointed, and annoyed, but I don’t find it particularly surprising. This is only one of a number of hardships that I have had to endure since making those remarks in 1968.

Following my little talk at the White House, most of my nightclub and hotel engagements in this country were canceled–even though contracts had been entered into. That I should be singled out appears, at first glance, to be puzzling. Scores of Hollywood, television, and music personalities, both American and foreign-born, have been far more critical of America’s foreign and domestic policies than I have. The difference, of course, is that I am not Barbara Howar or Jane Fonda or Candice Bergen. I am a black woman. I have always known that racism was widespread in America; after all, I spent most of my childhood in South Carolina on a cotton plantation and in the streets of Harlem. But it took the aftermath of the 1968 incident to prove to me just how deeply racial prejudice is rooted in the American national character. Because I am black, I had to be taught a lesson, and put back into my place as a singing, dancing, mindless automaton who saw no evil, did no evil, and most important, publicly spoke no evil.

In my case, the CIA apparently didn’t even have accurate information. For example, the news stories said the agency had learned I did “not associate with other black persons.” That’s nonsense. I have always taken an interest in the black community, even before it became fashionable to do so. I taught dancing at the Harlem YWCA as early as 1952, and have been teaching a dance class in Watts for almost 10 years.

I don’t regret anything that I’ve said or done. I have suffered a lot financially, but I have survived. I only have pity and sympathy for those who tucked their moral tails in between their legs and cuddled up to the Johnson and Nixon administrations’ immoral and unjust policies.”

Eartha Kitt’s name deserves to forever be immortalized next to others in history who were public warriors and stood up for what they believed for the greater good of justice for all people…no matter the cost or structural damage to the foundation of a career they’d built.

Source1, Source2, Source3

The post After She Made 1st Lady Cry, Eartha Kitt Detailed Why CIA Tried To Secretly Destroy Her appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

[kkgallery kid=”2941″ title=”Her MOM’s A BLACK ACTRESS Icon/Activist Who Sadly Died On Christmas See Who”]

The post Her MOM’s A BLACK ACTRESS Icon/Activist Who Sadly Died On Christmas, See Who appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

The late Eartha Kitt may have only stood 5’4″ tall, weighed about a buck 0-5, and was famously known as the “sex kitten’ who seduced Santa with her words in her song, “Santa Baby” (and later seduced Eddie Murphy in Boomerang, LOL), but let’s not forget that she was also a very dedicated and outspoken social activist.

That brings us to this CIA investigation that began in the late 1960’s on Ms. Kitt. She was furious to find out that she was being investigated like she was a criminal and it all stemmed from the time she spoke out at a White House function in 1968 and made President Lyndon B. Johnson’s wife cry like a baby in front of a room full of folks. Here is what was reported in the New York Times in 1968:

Singer Eartha Kitt stunned fellow guests at a White House luncheon and left Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson in tears Thursday when she declared angrily that the Vietnam War was causing American youth to rebel in the cities.

About 50 white and Negro women invited to the White House to discuss President Johnson’s proposals to combat crime in the streets sat at their tables in embarrassed silence as Miss Kitt delivered an emotional tirade against the war.

“You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed,” she told her fellow guests. “They rebel in the street. They will take pot…and they will get high. They don’t want to go to school because they’re going to be snatched off from their mothers to be shot in Vietnam.”

Mrs. Johnson rose afterward and looked directly at the singer, who leaned against a podium. “Because there is a war on–and I pray that there will be a just and honest peace–that still doesn’t give us a free ticket not to try to work for better things such as against crime in the streets, better education, and better health for our people,” Mrs. Johnson said, her voice trembling and tears welling in her eyes.

The President had dropped in on the luncheon briefly, and answered a pointed question from Miss Kitt, but left before her outburst. Miss Kitt, her eyes flashing in defiance while she puffed on a cigarette and jabbed a finger at her startled audience, said American youth are “angry because their parents are angry…because there is a war going on that they don’t understand.” She told Mrs. Johnson that youngsters feel alienated because “they can’t get to you and they can’t get to the President, and so they rebel in the streets.”

After that, Eartha was ridiculed by a governor’s wife who was also in the audience and that forced Eartha to go even farther…after she briefly apologized:

Miss Kitt rose during a question-and-answer period afterward and apologized for speaking up if she had offended the President and his wife. But, she said, turning to the other well-dressed guests. “I have to say what is in my heart.” She said she had not walked the streets of ghettos as a crusader as some of the other guests had, but “I have lived in the gutters.”

“I’m sorry,” Mrs. Johnson replied. “I cannot understand the
things that you do. I have not lived with the background that you have. I cannot
speak as passionately or as well as you. But I think we have made advances in
these things and we will do more.”

Embed from Getty Images

Eartha shot back at Mrs. Johnson again:

“We have to realize where the truth really is,” she said, pointing her finger at the guests who sat transfixed. “The children of America are not rebelling for no reason. They are not hippies for no reason at all. We don’t have what we have on Sunset Blvd. For no reason. They are rebelling against something. There are so many things burning the people of this country, particularly mothers. They feel they are going to raise sons–and I know what it’s like, and you have children of your own, Mrs. Johnson–we raise children and send them to war.”

She said that today’s youth feels there is no reason to be a “good guy.” He would rather go to jail as a “bad guy” and avoid the draft, she said. “They feel that if they have any life, it’s best to live because they may not be here tomorrow.”

Much respect to Eartha for keeping it beyond real with Mrs. Johnson and bravely stating her thoughts, especially during an era where it was unheard of for an African American women to do such a thing. Of course Ms. Kitt faced a ton of backlash that ended up damaging her career greatly after word got out about her White House melee…

Here is what President Johnson’s pastor publicly wrote to him the following day, regarding Eartha Kitt’s words:

“I commend you for all the work you have been doing to urge more justice and opportunity, especially for Negroes, and because all the Americans are in a sense a family, I apologize for any member of that family including Negroes who are ill-mannered, stupid, and arrogant.”

Almost immediately, Eartha, who was in high demand at that time, began to feel the backlash as nightclub owners and producers she was under contract with got scared and ended her shows at their facilities. Ms. Kitt may have felt the brunt of that backlash in her pocketbook, but she still NEVER backed down from voicing her views:

“For years I went along with the idea that entertainers should not get involved with politics. Today, I realize that because of our contact with the public, we have to speak out, to make those who are responsible more aware of what is happening where they perhaps cannot see. Particularly someone like myself, who has lived the life of poverty.”

Embed from Getty Images

Kitt started performing in Europe after finding it hard to book gigs in America and on her return back to America in 1975 she found out the CIA had been damaging her career  and her character by allegedly spreading false rumors about her in the media and that they had her under investigation since 1968 after the Secret Service asked them to do so following her White House convo.’ Needless to say, Eartha was pissed and she didn’t hesitate to put the CIA on full blast to the media:

“This is too much. This is more than I can or will take. I am determined to do my part in stopping the gradual erosion of American freedom.

If this is not done, the day when the enemies of freedom–be they Communist, Fascist, or what have you–walk right in and take over our country will come sooner than most of us are inclined to think. As for reports of the CIA’s invasion of my right to privacy, I am insulted, disappointed, and annoyed, but I don’t find it particularly surprising. This is only one of a number of hardships that I have had to endure since making those remarks in 1968.

Following my little talk at the White House, most of my nightclub and hotel engagements in this country were canceled–even though contracts had been entered into. That I should be singled out appears, at first glance, to be puzzling. Scores of Hollywood, television, and music personalities, both American and foreign-born, have been far more critical of America’s foreign and domestic policies than I have. The difference, of course, is that I am not Barbara Howar or Jane Fonda or Candice Bergen. I am a black woman. I have always known that racism was widespread in America; after all, I spent most of my childhood in South Carolina on a cotton plantation and in the streets of Harlem. But it took the aftermath of the 1968 incident to prove to me just how deeply racial prejudice is rooted in the American national character. Because I am black, I had to be taught a lesson, and put back into my place as a singing, dancing, mindless automaton who saw no evil, did no evil, and most important, publicly spoke no evil.

In my case, the CIA apparently didn’t even have accurate information. For example, the news stories said the agency had learned I did “not associate with other black persons.” That’s nonsense. I have always taken an interest in the black community, even before it became fashionable to do so. I taught dancing at the Harlem YWCA as early as 1952, and have been teaching a dance class in Watts for almost 10 years.

I don’t regret anything that I’ve said or done. I have suffered a lot financially, but I have survived. I only have pity and sympathy for those who tucked their moral tails in between their legs and cuddled up to the Johnson and Nixon administrations’ immoral and unjust policies.”

Eartha Kitt’s name deserves to forever be immortalized next to others in history who were public warriors and stood up for what they believed for the greater good of justice for all people…no matter the cost or structural damage to the foundation of a career they’d built.

The post Eartha Kitt Exposed Why The CIA Tried To Destroy Her In Secret Investigation appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

Eartha Kitt had an extremely rough childhood. To sum it up: She was born on a plantation in South Carolina in 1927 and picked cotton as a little girl. Her mother was an African American sharecropper, who many say became pregnant after being raped by a White plantation owner.

Eartha never was able to get concrete evidence of exactly who her real mother and White father were though. Confused yet? Understood, we’ll explain it in a minute. She eventually moved to NY and quit high school to work in a Brooklyn factory. As a teenager, Kitt lived in friends’ homes and in the subways. it wasn’t until the 1950’s that Eartha began to sing and dance her way out of poverty. But that didn’t come without a whole lot of heartache in her struggle to find out who her father was.

Now, I’m sure many of you are probably just as shocked as some of us were when we first found out Eartha was biracial. That’s one old school fact that wasn’t really publicized about her back in the day, but it’s true. Eartha was half Black and half White.

Anna Mae Riley, the woman she thought was her mother, was murdered when someone put a weird poisonous pepper-like substance on her food. Eartha’s “mother” Anna, actually abandoned her prior to dying. After Anna’s death, Eartha discovered that the woman she called “mother,” may have really been her aunt.

Eartha’s Aunt Mamie requested that Eartha to live with her in New York, only for Eartha to then be informed that Aunt Mamie was actually her mother. There were never any blood tests done, so Eartha never knew exactly who to believe on that.

Her aunt/mother Mamie was very physically abusive to her, tying her to a tree and beating her for the slightest of things. That’s when Eartha eventually wanted to…

The post Wow, Eartha Was Born On A Plantation, Picked Cotton & Dad Is A White… appeared first on I Love Old School Music.

ILOSM fam’ this is a tough one that will probably surprise you.

It’s Eartha Kitt!

Yep, you’re seeing this correctly, this woman’s mother is the one and only Eartha Kitt a.k.a. the baddest ‘Catwoman’ to have ever graced the acting world!

Told you this one was going to be a tough guess because Eartha and her daughter, 53 year old Kitt (McDonald) Shapiro (that’s right, her daughter’s first name is Eartha’s last name…that’s cool isn’t it?), couldn’t be more opposite when it comes to physical appearance: Eartha was petite and African American; Her daughter, Kitt, is obviously half African American as well, but her skin complexion, hair texture, and height takes after her father, John William McDonald, who is White (German/Irish). Her father was an associate of a real estate investment company and he and Eartha were married from 1960 to 1965.

One thing is for absolute certain though, Kitt and Eartha were beyond close, they were practically joined at the hip for all of Kitt’s life and she always expresses the deep, unconditional love she and her mother shared. Here is what Kitt told ‘MyFoxLA’ about she and her Mother’s relationship:

“In public, people would try to figure out who and what we were to each other.”

“In private, I faced the typical challenges of being a daughter, along with the complications of race and celebrity that came with having Eartha Kitt for my mother.”

“By the time I was born, my mother was famous. Yet even with all she had experienced, despite everything that had happened to her, I was the first person she really felt connected to. She didn’t even have to think about my name. It was going to be ‘Kitt’ whether I was a boy or a girl.”
“She’d introduce us by saying “I’m Eartha, she’s Kitt.” She felt I completed her. And when I was very young, I would tell her I’d chosen her out of all the other mommies to be mine.”

“I traveled the world with my mother, going wherever her work took us, while my father stayed home. My parents got divorced when I was five. It was unspoken, but I think he knew it was hard for me to see him without my feeling like I was betraying my mother.”

“My mother was determined not to raise a spoiled brat,” insisting on “good manners, good citizenship” – and good intentions. One day “I’d be at a five star hotel in Hong Kong” and the next “at my mother’s foundation in Watts where she worked with ‘at-risk’ kids.”

“As I got older our roles reversed. I felt I had to protect her, especially after the fallout over her outspokenness against the war in Vietnam.”

Throughout, as the single fixed point in the kaleidoscope of Eartha’s long life and career, Shapiro “was everything and everyone to her.”

“The greatest gift my mother gave me was knowing she always loved me. All the more remarkable since love was something she never had as a child.”

“The two sides of my upbringing, thestardust and the down to earth, reflected the two sides of my mother: the diva, and the real-life ‘Beverly Hillbilly’ who kept a chicken coop and vegetable garden behind our fancy house.”

Kitt also said this about the day she was at her mother’s side when she died:

“I was with her when she died. She left this world literally screaming at the top of her lungs. I was with her constantly, she lived not even 3 miles from my house, we were together practically everyday. She was home for the last few weeks when the doctor told us there was nothing they could do anymore.

Up until the last two days, she was still moving around. The doctor told us she will leave very quickly and her body will just start to shutdown. But when she left, she left the world with a bang, she left it how she lived it. She screamed her way out of here, literally. I truly believe her survival instincts were so part of her DNA that she was not going to go quietly or willingly. It was just the two of us hanging out [during the last days] she was very funny. We didn’t have to [talk] because I always knew how she felt about me. I was the love of her life, so the last part of her life we didn’t have to have these heart to heart talks.

She started to see people that weren’t there. She thought I could see them too, but, of course, I couldn’t. I would make fun of her like, ‘I’m going to go in the other room and you stay here and talk to your friends.'”

My mother…died on Christmas Day, 2008. Sad as I was, I felt blessed. There was nothing left unsaid or undone. There were no regrets.

That is a beautiful bond that Eartha and her daughter, Kitt, shared. It sounds like Eartha died the in best way possible: fearless and with the purest form of love sitting right by her side, helping her peacefully make her final grand exit. It reminds me of a quote I heard once:

“Everyone’s life ends the same way. It is only the details of how they lived and how they died that distinguish one person from another.”
-ILoveOldSchoolMusic, Old School news with a new point of view

The post Her African American Mom Is An Iconic Actress & Civil Rights Activist appeared first on I Love Old School Music.