Kitt was given by her mother to another woman to raise on a South Carolina plantation. When she was eight she was sent to Harlem to another woman. She has never discovered who her parents were and there is no record of her birth.

She entered show business in her late teens as a dancer and has performed in over 100 countries and in films with Nat King Cole, Sidney Poitier and Sammy Davis, Jr.

She is quoted as having said: "When your own mother throws you away, you fight a little harder for recognition."

References

"Kindred Spirits," Telegraph Magazine [London], 10 April 1993, p. 10
Who's Who in America, 1996
Kitt, Eartha. Confessions of a Sex Kitten. (New York: Barricade Books, 1991)
Kitt, Eartha. Alone with Me: A New Autobiography. (Chicago: H. Regnery Co., 1976)

Indexes

African
USA
20th Century
21st Century
Music and Dance
Theater, Broadcasting, Cinema
Birth or Infancy
Child Abandoned or Rejected by Birth Parent(s)
Family Friends or Acquaintances
Single Adopters or Fosterers
Very Poor (Financially) Adoptive or Foster Families
Customary or Traditional Adoption, Informal and Extra-Legal Care
Other or Unknown Reasons for Serial Placement
Tracing Impossible or Birth Family Extinct