Exploring Jazz Music One Musician at a Time

I was in a conversation about Ms. Horne just the other night. My friend and I were reflecting on her career, professional achievements and what could have been different about her career if she would have been born a few decades later...

So I was stricken with sadness when I read online last night that she had passed away at the New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in NYC. Ms. Horne always epitomized class and elegance to me. She had grace and exuded a beautiful, knowing spirit.

Lena Horne was admired by the women in my family when I was growing up. I heard stories from them about her struggles to make it in Hollywood in the 40s and 50s. They also recounted how she was blacklisted in Hollywood because her political and cultural views were not in lock-step with what was acceptable in America during the 1950s.

I became familiar with her movies "Cabin in the Sky", "Stormy Weather", "Boogie Woogie Dream" when I got older and renting videos became one of my favorite pastimes.

The following video, however, is how I first remember seeing her. When I was a little girl, it was cool to come home after school to watch "Sesame Street". You never knew which television or movie stars were going to make an appearance.

Looking back at the age of 80, Ms. Horne said: "My identity is very clear to me now. I am a black woman. I'm free. I no longer have to be a 'credit.' I don't have to be a symbol to anybody; I don't have to be a first to anybody. I don't have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I'd become. I'm me, and I'm like nobody else."

Lena Horne (June 30, 1917 - May 9, 2010)