LENA HORNE: 3 YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF HER PASSING

 

 Lena Horne, Singer and Actress, Died at 92

(read more in "THE NEW YORK TIMES" online)

Lena Horne, who broke new ground for black performers when she signed a long-term contract with a major Hollywood studio and who went on to achieve international fame as a singer, died on Sunday night in Manhattan. She was 92. 

 A PIONEER WITH GRACE, VISION, BEAUTY, TALENT AND GUTS.

Alicia Keys needs to start making her biopic--they were separated at birth as far as I'm concerned--GO ALICIA!!! Make us proud...

She was in“Thousands Cheer” (1943), “Broadway Rhythm” (1944), “Two Girls and a Sailor” (1944), “Ziegfeld Follies” (1946), “Words and Music” (1948) — to sing a song or two that, she later recalled, could easily be snipped from the movie when it played in the South, where the idea of an African-American performer in anything but a subservient role in a movie with an otherwise all-white cast was unthinkable.

 

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"Ms. Horne in 1981 after she won two Grammy awards for “Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music.” 

(SIDEBAR: I WAS TAKING FIGURE SKATING AT THE TIME & WAS THE ONLY MAN IN CLASS EXCEPT FOR MY TEACHER--WE WOULD TALK ABOUT LENA ALL THE TIME--HE HAD GONE TO SEE HER ON BROADWAY TONS OF TIMES THEN--I AM THINKING OF HIM TODAY TOO--HOPE YOU'RE WELL JOHN-HE WAS A FORMER ICE CAPADES DANCER)

Her death, at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, was announced by her son-in-law, Kevin Buckley. She lived in Manhattan. In a message of condolence, President Obama said Ms. Horne had "worked tirelessly to further the cause of justice and equality."

Ms. Horne first achieved fame in the 1940s, became a nightclub and recording star in the 1950s and made a triumphant return to the spotlight with a one-woman Broadway show in 1981.

She might have become a major movie star, but she was born 50 years too early: she languished at MGM for years because of her race, although she was so light-skinned that when she was a child other black children had taunt..."