Annie Mae Keith is the mother of Eartha Kitt. Annie Mae Keith’s daughter Kitt was an American singer, actress, comedian, dancer, and activist best known for her 1953 recordings of “C’est si bon” and the Christmas novelty song “Santa Baby.”

Annie Mae Keith: Bio Summary

Not much is known about the mother of Eartha Kitt, Annie Mae. According to her daughter Eartha’s Wikipedia, Annie Mae was of Cherokee and African descent. Though there is little to almost no knowledge of the father of her daughter, it was reported that he was the son of the owner of the farm where she had been born and that Kitt was conceived by rape.

In a 2013 biography, British journalist John Williams claimed that Kitt’s father was a white man, a local doctor named Daniel Sturkie. Kitt’s daughter, Kitt McDonald Shapiro, has questioned the accuracy of the claim. 

Eartha’s mother, Annie Mae Keith (later Annie Mae Riley), soon went to live with a black man who refused to accept Eartha because of her relatively pale complexion; she was raised by a relative named Aunt Rosa, in whose household she was abused.

After the death of Annie Mae, Eartha was sent to live with another relative named Mamie Kitt (who may, in fact, have been her biological mother) in Harlem, New York City, where she attended the Metropolitan Vocational High School (later renamed the High School of Performing Arts).

Annie Mae Keith’s daughter, Eartha

Kitt began her career in 1942 and appeared in the original Broadway production of Carib Song in 1945. She had six US Top 30 hits in the early 1950s, including “Uska Dara” and “I Want to Be Evil.” Her other hits include “Under the Bridges of Paris” (1954), “Just an Old Fashioned Girl” (1956), and “Where Is My Man” (1957). (1983). In 1967, she played Catwoman in the third and final season of the television series Batman.

Annie Mae Keith’s daughter Eartha married John William McDonald, an associate of a real estate investment company, on June 6, 1960, after having affairs with cosmetics magnate Charles Revson and banking heir John Barry Ryan III.

Kitt McDonald, their only child, was born on November 26, 1961, and was baptized Catholic at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church. In 1965, Kitt and McDonald divorced. Annie Mae Keith’s daughter, Kitt died of colon cancer on Christmas Day 2008, three weeks short of her 82nd birthday at her home in Weston, Connecticut.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pbXCsqurnZ6ZwG%2BvzqZmmqaenrJuucCeZKSdmam1brHVnqmyrJieu6h5wJumrqxdmq6zwMeaZKShpKnAbrnOrZ%2Beql8%3D