LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION mourning the death of legendary singer, dancer,
actress and civil rights activist Lena Mary Calhoun Horne

WHEREAS, It is the sense of this Legislative Body to pay tribute to the
lives of those esteemed individuals of world renown who distinguished
themselves through their life's work; and
WHEREAS, Born in Brooklyn, New York, Lena Horne was the first black
performer to be signed to a long-term contract by a major Hollywood
studio and went on to achieve international fame as a singer; she died
at the age of 92 on Sunday, May 9, 2010; and
WHEREAS, Lena Horne's timeless legacy will forever be celebrated as
part of the fabric of American popular music; her striking beauty often
overshadowed her talent and artistry; and
WHEREAS, Lena Horne was largely raised by her grandparents as her
mother, Edna Horne, who pursued a career in show business and father,
Teddy Horne separated; Lena dropped out of high school at age 16 and
joined the chorus line at the Cotton Club, the fabled Harlem night spot
where the entertainers were black and the clientele white; she left the
club in 1935 to tour with Noble Sissle's orchestra, billed as Helena
Horne; and
WHEREAS, Actress Liza Minnelli's father, director Vincente Minnelli,
brought Lena Horne to Hollywood to star in "Cabin in the Sky," in 1943;
in the 1940s, Lena Horne was one of the first black performers hired to
sing with a major white band, to play the Copacabana nightclub in New
York City and when she signed with MGM, she was among a few black actors
to have a contract with a major Hollywood studio; and
WHEREAS, In 1943, MGM Studios temporarily transferred her to 20th
Century-Fox to play the role of Selina Rogers in the all-black movie
musical "Stormy Weather"; her rendition of the title song became a major
hit and her most famous tune; and
WHEREAS, In her first big Broadway success, as the star of "Jamaica"
in 1957, reviewer Richard Watts Jr. called her "one of the incomparable
performers of our time"; Songwriter Buddy de Sylva dubbed her "the best
female singer of songs"; and
WHEREAS, Ms. Horne's voice was not particularly powerful, but it was
extremely expressive; she reached her listeners emotionally by acting as
well as singing the romantic standards like "The Man I Love" and "Moon
River" that dominated her repertory; the person she always credited as
her main influence was not another singer but a pianist and composer,
Duke Ellington's longtime associate Billy Strayhorn; and
WHEREAS, Lena Horne had married MGM music director Lennie Hayton, a
white man, in Paris in 1947 after her first overseas engagements in
France and England; an earlier marriage to Louis J. Jones had ended in
divorce in 1944 after producing her daughter, Gail and her son, Teddy;
Lena's father, her son and Hayton all died in 1970 and 1971; and
WHEREAS, While at MGM, Lena Horne starred in the all-black "Cabin in
the Sky," but in most movies, she appeared only in musical numbers that
could be cut when shown in the South and she was denied major roles and
speaking parts; she had appeared in the role of Julie in a "Show Boat"
scene in a 1946 movie about Jerome Kern, and was deemed a logical choice
for the 1951 movie, but the part went to a white actress, Ava Gardner,
who did not sing; and
WHEREAS, Lena Horne was only two when her grandmother, a prominent
member of the Urban League and the National Association for the Advance-
ment of Colored People, enrolled her in the NAACP; however, Lena avoided
activism until 1945 when she was entertaining at an Army base and saw
German prisoners of war sitting up front while black American soldiers

were consigned to the rear; that pivotal moment channeled her anger into
something useful; and
WHEREAS, Roger Edens, the composer and musical arranger who had been
Judy Garland's chief protector at MGM, had heard the elegant Lena Horne
sing at Cafe Society and also went to hear her at the Little Troc; he
then insisted that Arthur Freed, the producer of MGM's lavish musicals,
listen to Ms. Horne sing; Mr. Freed insisted that Louis B. Mayer, who
ran the studio, hear her, too, and when he did, she had soon signed a
seven-year contract with MGM; and
WHEREAS, With Lena Horne being the trailblazer, the NAACP celebrated
that particular contract as a weapon in its war to get better movie
roles for black performers; and
WHEREAS, Perpetually frustrated with racism, Lena Horne got involved
in various social and political organizations and partly because of a
friendship with singer-actor-activist Paul Robeson, was blacklisted
during the red-hunting McCarthy era; by the 1960s, she was one of the
most visible celebrities in the civil rights movement, once throwing a
lamp at a customer who made a racial slur in a Beverly Hills restaurant
and, in 1963, joining 250,000 others in the March on Washington for Jobs
and Freedom when Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream"
speech; she also spoke at a rally that year with another civil rights
leader, Medgar Evers, just days before his assassination; and
WHEREAS, Lena Horne's 1981 one-woman Broadway show, "Lena Horne: The
Lady and Her Music," won a special Tony Award and two Grammy Awards; in
it, the 64-year-old singer used two renditions, one straight and the
other gut-wrenching, of "Stormy Weather" to give audiences a glimpse of
the spiritual odyssey of her five-decade career; and
WHEREAS, A true asset to society, Lena Horne's life and works will
endure as an inspiration and legacy to all who had the privilege and
honor of knowing her; she is survived by her daughter, journalist Gail
Buckley; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
mourn the death of legendary singer, dancer, actress and civil rights
activist Lena Mary Calhoun Horne; and be it further
RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be tran-
smitted to Gail Buckley.