Kathryn Keeton (February 17, 1939 – September 19, 1997) was an Americans magazine publisher along with her partner, and later husband, Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione.
Early life and show business career
Born in South Africa and raised on a farm, Keeton took up dancing in childhood to strengthen a leg affected by
Poliomyelitis. She won a scholarship to the Sadler's Wells Ballet in London, but left after she turned 18 to work in a
nightclub.
She appeared in
in four British movies:
Carlton-Browne of the F.O. (1959) (as a tabletop dancer),
Expresso Bongo (1959),
Too Hot to Handle (1960), and
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) (as a
stripper). At the age of 24 she was what The Associated Press called "one of the highest-paid strippers in Europe".
Publishing career
She met Bob Guccione in 1965 and they remained together, although they did not marry until 1988.
In his publishing company her title was President/Chief Operating Officer of General Media Communications, Inc. She founded the magazines
Viva (1973),
Omni (1978), and
Longevity (1989). She also wrote two non-fiction books,
Woman of Tomorrow (1986) and
Longevity: The Science of Staying Young (1992). She was
plaintiff in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case of
Keeton v. Hustler Magazine, Inc..
Illness and death
After her diagnosis with
breast cancer, Keeton treated herself with hydrazine sulfate, after reading about it in
Penthouse, one of her own publications. She claimed that she had rid herself of, or shrunk almost all of, the tumors and extended her life by several years, after being given a dire initial prognosis of only six weeks to live by her doctors.
Keeton died of complications from surgery for an intestinal obstruction, aged 58, in New York City.[ Keeton was buried at "The Willows" (now known as Locusts on Hudson) in Staatsburg, New York, the country home she shared with her husband.
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