Lena Mary Calhoun Horne, a Jazz Legend & a groundbreaking actress, passes away at the age of 92 after six decades of performing. According to the hospital spokeswoman Gloria Chin, Horne died at NewYork, Presbyterian Hospital on a Sunday. Other specific details about her death are unknown.
Lena Horne, without a doubt, is one of the most successful performers of her time. Despite the discrimination of her time, she rose into the scene performing on the audience of both sides. The situation being overwhelming at the time, she was always frustrated with racism; especially when public humiliation boots in. In fact, she became an iconic figure in civil rights movements as she advanced in the later stages of her career. She once said in Brian Lanker’s book I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America:
“I was always battling the system to try to get to be with my people. Finally, I wouldn’t work for places that kept us out … it was a damn fight everywhere I was, every place I worked, in New York, in Hollywood, all over the world”
That issue aside, Horne was also one of the first black women to perform on a nationwide stage. The musical films “Cabin in the Sky” and “Stormy Weather” sealed Horne’s status as an iconic black performer.