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Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Flying in tribute to Lena Horne

I never met Lena Horne, yet she inpsired me just as much as the women I have met. I thought she was incredibly beautiful and now her song Stormy Weather is running over and over in my head.

Don't know why there's no sun up in the sky
Stormy weather since my man and I ain't together
Keeps raining all the time, the time
Life is bare, gloom and misery everywhere
Stormy weather, just can't get my poor self together
It's raining all the time, the time

She was incredible. Okay, that is too tame a word, she was extraordinary. She was honored with Grammys, Tonys and the NAACP's highest award. What I did not know was that she was married  24-years to MGM conductor and arranger Lennie Hayton, who was white. Because interracial marriage was illegal in 30 of the 48 states, they wed secretly in Paris in 1947, and didn't make public their troth until 1950. Miss Horne credited Hayton with widening her vocal range and taste.


I also did not know ss a result of her friendship with Robeson, a member of the Communist Party, and her support of anti-fascist causes, Miss Horne was blacklisted in 1950.

Thank you, Lena for moving to the front of line making a way for the rest of us if we dare to fly as high as you did.

Read more about Miss Horne at http://www.philly.com/inquirer/front_page/20100510_Award-winning_performer_Lena_Horne_dies_at_92.html






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