Kitt's Daughter Remembers Last Moments

The Santa Baby singer and actress lost her battle with colon cancer after checking into a New York City hospital on 24 November (08), where her daughter, Kitt Shapiro took care of her.

Kitt was diagnosed with the illness in 2006 but had gone into remission following treatment.

Shapiro tells the National Enquirer, "I have been with her 24 hours a day since (checking in to the hospital). She came back home a few days before the end, and I was the only one with her when she died.

"I had the most amazing mother. She was not afraid of dying. She was in pain, but funny right to the end. One of the last things she said when I was talking loudly to her - like you do to a sick person - was: 'I'm dying. I'm not losing my hearing!'

"And she said, 'There won't be a burial. I'll be cremated. I don't want to take up space.'

"My mother had no regrets. She said: 'I have lived an amazing life. I did everything I ever dreamed of.' I was truly, truly blessed to have landed in her lap."

Kitt enjoyed a glittering career on stage and screen; she won a string of prizes including two Emmys and several Annie Awards, and famously starred as Catwoman in 1960s TV series Batman.

Shapiro is Kitt's daughter from her two year marriage to John Barry Ryan in the 1960s.