LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION Paying Grateful Tribute to the Distinguished and Remarkable Life of Eartha Kitt, Noted Singer, Entertainer and Anti-War Activist

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LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION paying grateful tribute to the distinguished and remarkable life of Eartha Kitt, noted singer, entertainer and anti-war activist

WHEREAS, It is the sense of this Legislative Body to honor the memory of cherished citizens of the State of New York who distinguished themselves in their profession and whose talent, charm, intellect and unique personality permeated all they did; and WHEREAS, It is with great sorrow and deep regret that this Legislative Body records the passing of Eartha Kitt on Thursday, December 25, 2008, at the age of 81; and WHEREAS, Born on January 17, 1927, in South Carolina, as Eartha Mae Keith, she danced, sang, and acted her way into the hearts of millions; and WHEREAS, For generations, the name Eartha Kitt was synonymous with sexy, sultry, and outspoken; since the tender age of 14, she worked the stage, and for nearly seven decades, she left her indelible imprint by her work on the big screen, television and recordings; and WHEREAS, Eartha Kitt's career-long persona, that of the seen-it-all sybarite, was set when she performed in Paris cabarets in her early 20s, singing songs that became her signatures, like "C'est Si Bon" and "Love for Sale"; and WHEREAS, Ms. Kitt, who began performing in the late 1940s as a dancer in New York, went on to achieve success and acclaim in a variety of mediums long before other entertainment multi-taskers like Julie Andrews, Barbra Streisand and Bette Midler; and WHEREAS, An international star who gave new meaning to the word versa- tile, she was one of only a handful of performers to be nominated for a Tony three times; and both a Grammy and an Emmy Award two times; she regularly enthralled New York nightclub audiences during her extended stays at The Cafe Carlyle; and WHEREAS, Those who want to see her as a seductive chanteuse should watch the 1958 film "St. Louis Blues," starring Nat King Cole, Ruby Dee, Pearl Bailey and the gospel great, Mahalia Jackson; for a slightly comic turn, one can see Eartha Kitt as an amorous entrepreneurial cougar on the hunt for a young Eddie Murphy in the 1992 film "Boomerang" starring Halle Berry as the principal love interest; and WHEREAS, Although she was known as the quintessential sex kitten for her acting, Eartha Kitt's public outspokenness came at quite a cost; her comings, goings, doings and sayings were tracked by both the FBI and the CIA; and WHEREAS, On January 18, 1968, she dared speak out at a luncheon held at the White House by the then First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson against the Vietnam War and was both blacklisted and harassed for doing so; for daring to speak her mind at the heart of the empire, and for denouncing an Imperial war, the media and the state tried to disappear her; she had to go abroad to find her freedom of speech, where she remained for nearly a decade; and WHEREAS, President Kennedy, Malcolm X, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were all slain by 1968; with Robert Kennedy's assassination mere month's away, his candidacy, much like Barack Obama's, was seen as a beacon of hope in a sea of troubles; and WHEREAS, Eartha Kitt moved through life with an intelligence, wit and nerve that made her distinctive and unforgettable; in addition, her role as an anti-war activist won her a place in the history of American civil rights; and

WHEREAS, In 1978, then President Jimmy Carter invited Eartha Kitt back to the White House, and that year she earned her first Tony nomination for her work in "Timbuktu!," an all-black remake of "Kismet"; by now a diva and legend, Ms. Kitt dabbled in dance music, scoring her biggest hit in 30 years with "Where Is My Man" in 1984, the same year she was roundly criticized for touring South Africa; and WHEREAS, The third of her three autobiographies, I'M STILL HERE: CONFESSIONS OF A SEX KITTEN, was published in 1989, and she earned a Grammy nomination for BACK IN BUSINESS, a collection of cabaret songs released in 1994; and WHEREAS, As Eartha Kitt began the sixth decade of her career, she was still active; in 2000, she received her second Tony nomination for best featured actress in a musical in "The Wild Party"; branching out into children's programming, she won two Daytime Emmy Awards, in 2007 and 2008, as outstanding performer in an animated program for her role as the scheming empress-wannabe Yzma in "The Emperor's New School"; and WHEREAS, All the while, she remained a fixture on the cabaret circuit, having maintained her voice and shapely figure; in September of 2007, she opened the newly renovated Cafe Carlyle in New York; and WHEREAS, Eartha Kitt was married to her one husband, Bill McDonald, a real-estate developer, from 1960 to 1965; their daughter, Kitt Shapiro, survives her, as do two grandchildren; and WHEREAS, Armed with a humanistic spirit, imbued with a sense of compassion, and comforted by numerous admirers, Eartha Kitt leaves behind a legacy which will long endure the passage of time, and will remain as a comforting memory to all she befriended; now, therefore, be it RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to pay grateful tribute to the distinguished and remarkable life of Eartha Kitt, noted singer, entertainer and anti-war activist; and be it further RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be tran- smitted to the family of Eartha Kitt.