Eartha

Eartha Kitt had a so-called love/hate relationship with the state of South Carolina. So says a story by one of our senior writers,John Monk who writes on political issues for THE State, the major newspaper for the capitol city of SC. Personally and also because I now live and work in South Carolina I can relate to the consternation of Ms. Kitt. You see she was born here in 1927. Now historically I would not say that this was the place to be for black people or for people that sympathized with the plight of Africans in America. Coupled with just that time line Ms. Kitt had to survive according to wikipedia growing up in a world that was tough to survive in. Now you must realize this was also the world of "Jump" Jim Crow, of public lynch mobs,of night KKK riders and many more horrors. So she left South Carolina to travel to NYC. And her life from that point took off. As far as South Carolina was concerned she never looked back. She became famous all throughout our nation and the world. I guess you could say all was well until our country entered the long and bloody Vietnam war. And Ms. Kitt was asked her opinion. And she gave it. She was against the war. And her comments even made Lady Bird Johnson cry. And so her once flourishing career went into a 10 year nose-dive. Tom Joyner of The Tom Joyner morning show once asked her how long did it take (meaning for the Lyndon Johnson Administration) to start the investigation of Ms. Kitt for her anti-Vietnam war stance. "Two hours" she said. Can you imagine that you speak out against the war and then 2 hours comes a knock on the door and then someone tells you have "X" amount of time to pack your bag and live the country.In a way I can understand how the late and great person,born Eartha Mae Keith reference the "wikipedia" (The State,December 26,front page)known the world over as Eartha Kitt. Felt in newspaperman,John Monk's piece(The State Newspaper,Columbia SC,Dec 2008) explaining her love and hate relationship with South Carolina. Kind of makes me think about another just as famous American Josephine Baker. And what also intrigued me about Ms. Kitt is that she spoke a language I have a little grasp of (she spoke fluently and sang in Turkish beside so many other languages) I had a chance to glance through one of her many autobiographies. A highly gifted lady on stage,screen as a singer and multi-lingual her linage was Cherokee,African,Dutch and German. I wished I had had the chance to meet her. And I can't blame her for her apprehension of not wanting to come or even do shows in South Carolina her so-called birth place. Ironically I am not even from the South. Uncle SAM sent me there and yes I did

protest the move to no avail. I still regret living in South Carolina and in the South. But I make the best of where ever I am put on this globe even under duress.I have seen some changes in deep south state, of South Carolina. I just wish that South Carolina had treated the late Ms. Kitt better why did it have to be the rest of the world showing SC how to act? Perhaps if I'd had my wish I'd be writing about having met this great personality(like when I met Ossie Davis) in the midlands in North SC. I can only wonder how many fortunate and lucky people had the chance to see her live or meet her or see her as she traveled the world. Especially in Paris a wonderful city that I visited five different times. Rest in Peace Ms. Kitt and my sympathy and condolences on your untimely passage.