part of that movement. She also assisted Eleanor Roosevelt (18841962) in her She was also popular with servicemen, white and black, during World War II, appearing more than a dozen times on the Army radio program Command Performance., The whole thing that made me a star was the war, Ms. Horne said in the 1990 interview. I hope I gave her something in return because her life was not a safe life.". I am a 51 yr old woman that grew up watching the wonderful old movies. Her death, at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, was announced by her son-in-law, Kevin Buckley. And you have to do it.' Her mother, Edna, was an actress She was a lifelong liberal Democrat. (1943), Lena Horne (1917-2010) - Find a Grave Memorial A woman of great beauty and Family And Friends Attend Services For Entertainer Lena Horne Photos From an early age Horne had ambitions of becoming a I dont want her in the movies playing maids.. Horne's father and her son, plunged her into a state of One in which music became my refuge and then my salvation. She broke through racial barriers as the first black performer to sign a long-term contract with a major Hollywood studio. The First Family. The son of actor Bobby Cannavale (no surprises there) and actress Jenny Lumet, Jake's maternal grandmother is Gail Lumet, the daughter of legendary Black singer, actress and activist Lena. But as the group's only black member she Lena Horne was the first black woman to get a contract with a major Hollywood Studio By John Lawrence Born into a black bourgeoisie family in 1917, Lena Horne was signed up in the NAACP by her grandmother, Cora Calhoun Horne, a college graduate, at the age of two. worked to increase the economic and political power of minorities and to He stretched me vocally. Strayhorn occasionally worked as her accompanist and, she said, taught me the basics of music, because I didnt know anything., Strayhorn was also the only man I ever loved, she said, but Strayhorn was openly gay, and their close friendship never became a romance.
