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Legendary African-American singer Lena Horne died Sunday in New York City at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. She was 92. No cause of death was given.
The Los Angeles Times has an extensive obituary that follows Horne’s rise from a 16-year-old chorus girl at Harlem’s Cotton Club to six decades of work in film, radio, television, and on stage. Horne’s sweet voice and radiant smile brought her attention from Hollywood, but despite being under an unprecedented seven-year deal with MGM in the 1940s, she refused to play a maid or other stereotypical black roles of the time.
Her performance of the title song in the black musical Stormy Weather in 1943 became her signature song. A clip from the film follows below, as well as another clip showing how this writer was first introduced to Horne.
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