10 May Music Legend Lena Horne Passes Away

Lena Horne File Photo

Music legend Lena Horne has passed away at the age of 92.  Her voice was as sexy as her beauty and her acting.

She passed away at a New York hospital.  In the 1940’s, Lena was one of the first black artists to play at the Copacabana.  In 1943, she starred in “Stormy Weather” and it became the role that would identify her for quite a while. 

Singing and acting was not good enough for Horne as she successfully performed on Broadway in the late 50’s in “Jamaica” and was well reviewed.

One of the first female performers to tackle racism back then, Horne became an advocate of only performing for white audiences and would stop performing at places that kept black people out.  Early in her career, black people felt Lena sold out for performing for white audiences and tried to pass for something else due to her complexion.

“I don’t have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I’d become,” Horne once said. “I’m me, and I’m like nobody else.”

In 1944, while performing for the troops overseas, she saw white soldiers sitting in the front while black soldiers were regulated to the back and that caused her to take action. 

Lena Horne did marry a white man and when asked why, she replied; “To get even with him.”

In 1981,  she returned to Broadway to do a 1 woman show about her life entitled ” Lena Horne: The Lady & Her Music”, which she won a Tony for. 

Lena Horne is an icon.  To music. To film. To Broadway. To Civil Rights.  Without Lena, there would be no Halle Berry.  There would be no Alicia Keys.  This place would not be so funky if not for a soul like Lena Horne.

You will be missed.  Thank you for everything you did.-Dr.FB

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