We’re sad to announce that legendary singer, dancer, actress and outspoken diva Eartha Kitt died on Christmas Day at the age of 81. How fitting for someone who was best known for her song “Santa Baby. ” Her iconic purr as Catwoman on the campy 1960s Batman TV series, her sense of outrage against the Vietnam war and her fierce advocacy for GLBT rights and HIV/AIDS prevention will always I had the pleasure of socializing with Eartha Kitt when I attended a benefit fundraiser for the Houston Opera in the early 1990s. After seeing her vivacious, incredible performance of most of her hit songs I somehow managed to crash a reception where I spoke with Eartha in Spanish at her insistence. I also watched as many of her long-time fans shared with her what she mean to them.Born from humble origins in South Carolina, as a young woman Eartha Kitt auditioned for the Katherine Dunham Dance Company where she toured Europe and the Middle East extensively. Her career as a singer and dancer really took off in 1950, when she was cast in the stage adaption of Faust by Orson Welles, who discovered her while she was doing a cabaret show in Paris.Orson Welles one time bit Eartha on the lip while sharing a passionate kiss onstage. He later explained himself “I had to You’re the most exciting woman in the world.” In an online discussion at Washingtonpost.com in March 2005, shortly after Jamie Foxx and Morgan Freeman won Oscars, she expressed satisfaction that black performers “have more of a chance now than we did then to play larger parts.”But she also said: “I don’t carry myself as a black person but as a woman that belongs to everybody. After all, it’s the general public that made (me) — not any one particular group. So I don’t think of myself as belonging to any particular group and never have.” Because of her outspoken nature, Eartha got into hot water with Lady Bird Johnson and the FBI when she was invited to a Whitehouse La...