Eartha Kitt, 81, died on Christmas Day.

Kitt, known for her sultry rendition of Santa Baby and playing Catwoman on TV's Batman, was always sexy.

I never knew she had colon cancer because every time you saw Miss Kitt, she looked every bit the diva. Even at the age of 81, she had sex appeal that women younger than her could only pray for.

Dubbed the "most exciting woman in the world" by Orson Welles, Kitt's career spanned six decades, from her start as a dancer with the famed Katherine Dunham troupe to cabarets and acting and singing on stage, in movies and on television.

She won two Emmys, and was also nominated for several Tonys and two Grammys.

Kitt was featured on the cover of her 2001 book, "Rejuvenate," a guide to staying physically fit, in a long, curve-hugging black dress with a figure that some 20-year-old women would envy. She also wrote three autobiographies.

She persevered through an unhappy childhood as a mixed-race daughter of the South, and made headlines in the 1960s for denouncing the Vietnam War during a visit to the White House.

Eartha Kitt proved that sexy knows no age.