Legendary singer, dancer, actress and civil rights activist Lena Horne, 92, died at New York-Presbyterian Hospital on Sunday night, a hospital spokeswoman said.
No other details of her death were made public.
Horne was the first African-Americans to sign a long-term movie contract with a major Hollywood studio when she joined MGM in 1942.
Horne’s expressive and silky voice made her a singing star, known best for her hit “Stormy Weather,” after Hollywood failed to give her roles that might have made her a big screen starlet.
Horne complained she was used as “window dressing” in white films, mostly limited to singing performances that could be easily edited out for play in southern theaters.
The light-complexioned Horne refused to go along with studio plans to promote her as a Latin American.
She later said she did not want to be “an imitation of a white woman.”
Horne, whose parents divorced when she was 3, lived a nomadic childhood traveling with her actress mother. She spent much of her time growing up in Brooklyn, New York, where she was born in 1917.
Horne was 16 when she began her show business career as a dancer at Harlem’s Cotton Club. She later became a singer there, playing to packed houses of white patrons, with band leaders Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington.
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article courtesy of CNN.com
Legendary Singer, Actress Lena Horne Dead At 92 was originally published on praisecleveland.com
