Eartha Kitt's Daughter Remembers the 'Santa Baby' Singer Who Died on Christmas Day 2008 (Exclusive)
- - Eartha Kitt's Daughter Remembers the 'Santa Baby' Singer Who Died on Christmas Day 2008 (Exclusive)
Virginia Chamlee, Liz McNeilDecember 24, 2025 at 10:25 AM
0
Scott Gries/Getty
Eartha Kitt -
Eartha Kitt's daughter is recalling her mother's final moments
Kitt Shapiro's 2021 memoir, Eartha & Kitt: A Daughter's Love Story in Black & White, details her mother's life and legacy
She writes: "Tears were streaming down her face. And she was screaming with this sort of—this primal, animal-like sound."
Eartha Kitt's daughter once recounted her mother's dramatic last moments on Christmas 2008.
In her 2021 memoir Eartha & Kitt: A Daughter's Love Story in Black & White, the singer's daughter Kitt Shapiro remembers the legendary entertainer who seduced audiences as Catwoman in the late '60s and made holiday music history with her recording of the 1953 song, "Santa Baby."
In a statement to PEOPLE, Shapiro said the continued popularity of the song is a tangible reminder of her mother's love.
"When Santa Baby comes on at Christmas, it makes me smile. Hearing her voice always warms my heart and reminds me how blessed I was to have been loved so deeply," she tells PEOPLE.
But Christmastime also serves as a reminder of her mother's final days.
As Shapiro wrote in her book, Eartha "never missed a performance—ever."
But that changed in September 2008, with her final performance with the Virginia Symphony.
Her mother, the family would soon find out, had stage 3 colon cancer.
— sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty
Eartha Kitt
"She was in such intense pain that she could barely stand up," Shapiro wrote in the book. "But the second she stepped out onto the stage and the spotlight hit her, it was as if the pain just vanished. She was able to perform for ninety straight minutes, belting it out as if she were fifty years old. You would never in a million years have guessed that she was actually eighty-one. Or critically ill."
After the performance, however, Eartha "came off the stage and practically collapsed," Shapiro wrote, adding, "We soon realized that we would have to cancel all of her remaining engagements."
While Eartha would go on to undergo chemotherapy, Shapiro wrote that she seemingly "gave up the fight" with the knowledge that performing would be a thing of the past.
On November 24, 2008 — two days before Thanksgiving — Eartha entered the hospital, with a doctor telling the family that she might have three months left, "but even that was doubtful."
After the family determined she would be more comfortable in her own house, they took her back home to Connecticut and opted for hospice care.
Michael Tran/FilmMagic
Eartha Kitt and Kitt Shapiro
"For most people, this would have been a sad time. We weren’t going to lose our senses of humor now," Shapiro wrote. "I remember propping her up with pillows at one point and asking, perhaps a little too loudly, 'Are you OK?' And she looked at me and said, 'I can hear you just fine. I’m dying. I’m not deaf!'"
As her health continued to deteriorate, the hospice nurse told Shapiro her mother would likely "just fade away."
"She made it sound like it would be very peaceful," Shapiro wrote.
But it was not.
Shapiro recounted how, on Christmas Day 2008, she and her mother and were watching TV alone.
"By now, my mother had lost her speech entirely. She had stopped speaking about two days earlier. But she had still remained alert. Her eyes were wide open," Shapiro wrote. "She could also still make herself heard. And that’s what she was doing right now, loud and clear. She literally left this earth screaming at the top of her lungs."
She continued: "Tears were streaming down her face. And she was screaming with this sort of—this primal, animal-like sound. That’s when I realized that she was actually going. But not willingly."
"In typical mother-daughter fashion, I soon began screaming right back at her. 'You can go!' I cried, my lips close to her ear, holding her to me with all my might. Then, all of a sudden, she fell silent. And I knew that she was gone."
Speaking to PEOPLE in an earlier interview, Shapiro noted the timing — that her mother, a woman known for her sultry rendition of "Santa Baby," would die on Christmas.
"She knew the importance of timing," Shapiro told PEOPLE with a laugh, "and in a way, it was poetic."
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
