Her Mother’s career spanned over 6 decades and her mom’s an entertainer of many talents. Throughout her career, she was known as an avid civil rights activist, who has stirred up controversy over the years for being so outspoken about racial, social and gender injustices.
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
Eartha Kitt is mixed and not just African American
Eartha Kitt is mixed and not just African American
You guys stump me every doggon day! One day I will guess correctly! Lmbo!
You guys stump me every doggon day! One day I will guess correctly! Lmbo!
I love Old school music, No Kitt is not half AA as well, think about it, if Eartha was half black then her daughter kitt is? 1/4 black which is why she looks the way she does.
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.
I love Old school music, No Kitt is not half AA as well, think about it, if Eartha was half black then her daughter kitt is? 1/4 black which is why she looks the way she does.
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.
Got this lovely part from huffington, thought I would share it here
Because my mother and I looked so different physically — I inherited my father’s German-Irish skin and blonde hair — when we were in public, people would try to figure out who and what we were to each other.
My mother would have named me Kitt whether I was a boy or a girl, and often introduced us to people, saying, “I’m Eartha and she’s Kitt,” as if I completed her. And, in some ways, I guess I did. Her mother had died when she was very young. She didn’t know who her father was and was disconnected from any of her relatives, so I really was her only family. And she clung to me with an intensely deep, unconditional love. I, in turn, whether I knew it or not, gave her roots and grounded her.
Mother’s Day symbolized to her that there is nothing more important on this planet than being a good mother.
Another lovely part
My mother would say to me, “When I’m gone, do not throw anything away — use it.” In going through my mother’s belongings, I unearthed a treasure trove of handwritten thoughts we affectionately refer to as “Kitt-isms.” Colorful, wise, musings such as “What I do today is how I am interpreted tomorrow,”
“When life becomes confused, step aside and think,” and “How some people can get bored bewilders me.” I cherish these precious papers and in using her handwritten words in a new collection of eco-friendly products I’ve created called Simply Eartha, it really feels like she has a hand in it.
Got this lovely part from huffington, thought I would share it here
Because my mother and I looked so different physically — I inherited my father’s German-Irish skin and blonde hair — when we were in public, people would try to figure out who and what we were to each other.
My mother would have named me Kitt whether I was a boy or a girl, and often introduced us to people, saying, “I’m Eartha and she’s Kitt,” as if I completed her. And, in some ways, I guess I did. Her mother had died when she was very young. She didn’t know who her father was and was disconnected from any of her relatives, so I really was her only family. And she clung to me with an intensely deep, unconditional love. I, in turn, whether I knew it or not, gave her roots and grounded her.
Mother’s Day symbolized to her that there is nothing more important on this planet than being a good mother.
Another lovely part
My mother would say to me, “When I’m gone, do not throw anything away — use it.” In going through my mother’s belongings, I unearthed a treasure trove of handwritten thoughts we affectionately refer to as “Kitt-isms.” Colorful, wise, musings such as “What I do today is how I am interpreted tomorrow,”
“When life becomes confused, step aside and think,” and “How some people can get bored bewilders me.” I cherish these precious papers and in using her handwritten words in a new collection of eco-friendly products I’ve created called Simply Eartha, it really feels like she has a hand in it.
Agreed Mark Espin. I find the term ‘African-American’ antiquated in general. My great-great-great-great grandmother was African-American as she was a result of slave/slave-owner mixture. But through many family mixtures, Asian included, I can only think of myself as Multi-racial. Just because it is easier to people (many people always look for the short-cut first) to say of any American person of color that they are ‘African-American’ just doesn’t cut it anymore. Because my great-great grandmother had children with a man from China does not exclude his family DNA and culture at all from my make-up.
And as for Ms. Kitt- I met her in NY in the 1980’s running a 5K race of all things! she was glorious. She was about 60 years old at the time and looked like a 20 year old. I always hated how the film Boomerang depicted her. Yes, it was ‘just a movie’ but she was truly better looking in life than most of the young women in the film but was made through make-up to look older than she really looked for the part.
My heart goes out to her daughter that she doesn’t have her day to day with her mom anymore, but I know that everything Ms. Kitt was is right there in everything her daughter says or does.
Agreed Mark Espin. I find the term ‘African-American’ antiquated in general. My great-great-great-great grandmother was African-American as she was a result of slave/slave-owner mixture. But through many family mixtures, Asian included, I can only think of myself as Multi-racial. Just because it is easier to people (many people always look for the short-cut first) to say of any American person of color that they are ‘African-American’ just doesn’t cut it anymore. Because my great-great grandmother had children with a man from China does not exclude his family DNA and culture at all from my make-up.
And as for Ms. Kitt- I met her in NY in the 1980’s running a 5K race of all things! she was glorious. She was about 60 years old at the time and looked like a 20 year old. I always hated how the film Boomerang depicted her. Yes, it was ‘just a movie’ but she was truly better looking in life than most of the young women in the film but was made through make-up to look older than she really looked for the part.
My heart goes out to her daughter that she doesn’t have her day to day with her mom anymore, but I know that everything Ms. Kitt was is right there in everything her daughter says or does.
For the longest time in America, there was the one-drop rule. If you had one ancestor of sub-Saharan African ancestry you were Black. That thought persists to this day.
Obviously Erthea has more European Dna(or at least a good chunk) than Negroid. So why are you calling her African American? Is she from Africa? I thought she was born in America?