Puurrfectly Poised: Style Icon Eartha Kitt - Page 7

Eartha Kitt was a fascinating woman with an equally fascinating story. Born in 1927, Eartha Kitt was the product of a rape between a Cherokee woman and German-Dutch man. As a young girl Eartha went to live with an aunt, who she believed was her biological mother, in South Carolina until she was eight years old. When her aunt got married, her new husband did not like the fact that Eartha was too light complected. So she moved to Harlem to live with her biological mother, although she didn’t know it at the time.

From there, Eartha started performing in Harlem and went on to become a singer, actress and a cabaret star. Spending a good portion of her career in Europe, Eartha spoke four languages and sang in seven. Always reemerging at different points in her career, Orson Welles called her “the most exciting woman in the world.” While there’s no way we can prove that, Eartha definitely was an exciting woman. If you need any proof, check out the pictures of the starlet throughout the course of her lifetime.

A young Kitt, with perfectly coiffed hair, her button nose and the tiniest waist. Despite aging, Eartha would always be known for her hourglass figure.

Long before she played Catwoman in the sixties version of the show “Batman” Eartha and her voice were likened to cats. So it’s only fitting she’d pose next to a cheetah. (Even though she’s wearing leopard.)

Who would be more fitting to take on this role? In the late ’60s when the original catwoman could no longer perform her duties. One woman’s loss is another woman’s gain.

Photos: vanessaveasley.com

Eartha smiles sweetly in a gown with a draping train.

A little older but still on a couch, Eartha’s body looks virtually the same.

In a performance a year before her death in 2008, Eartha still managed to show us a little leg.

Although her career in entertainment was nothing short of fascinating, Eartha also used her celebrity to take a stand on issues she felt strongly about. She spoke openly with the former first lady, Lyndon B. Johnson’s wife, about her displeasure with the U.S’ involvement in the Vietnam war and she was also a staunch advocate for same sex marriages.

Eartha passed away from colon cancer in 2008 at the age of 81.

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