The singer Eartha Kitt is still in great demand on the cabaret and concert circuits in the US, mixing her signature songs, such as Old Fashioned Millionaire, Love for Sale and Santa Baby, with fresh numbers. She usually ends her act with a rousing anthem Here’s to Life, which sums up her optimistic philosophy. Her four books have such cheerful titles as I’m Still Here and Rejuvenate! It’ s Never too Late. After a tough childhood, in which she was ostracised for her mixed-race heritage (her father was a white farmer, her mother a black Cherokee), she was given away by her mother at the age of 8 and sent from the Carolina cottonfields to an aunt in Harlem. Her break came when she joined a dance troupe, became its vocalist and toured the world. She appears next week in Minneapolis with the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra and then goes to New York for a 50th anniversary celebration. Eartha Kitt is 79 today. RGT
Muhammad Ali, boxer, 64; Sir William Benyon, Conservative MP for Buckingham, 1970-83, and Milton Keynes, 1983-92, 76; Sir John Boyd, Master of Churchill College, Cambridge, 70; Sir Malcolm Chaplin, chartered surveyor, 72; Sir Mervyn Davies, High Court judge, 1982-93, 88; Sir Edward Fennessy, radar pioneer, 94; James Earl Jones, actor, 75; Anthony Kenney, obstetrician and gynaecologist, 64; the Right Rev Nigel McCulloch, Bishop of Manchester, 64; Ken Minton, chairman of Inveresk, 2001-02, 69; Sir Geoffrey Pattie, chairman of GEC Marconi, 1996-99, 70; Professor W. B. Robertson, histopathologist, 83; Moira Shearer, former ballerina and writer, 80; Lord Tunnicliffe, chairman of the Rail Safety and Standards Board, 63; Sir Clyde Walcott, West Indies cricketer, 80; Dame Gillian Weir, organist, 65; Paul Young, singer, 50.