Lena Horne

Born June 30, 1917, in Brooklyn, New York, Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was the daughter of Edwin Fletcher Horne, Jr. and Edna Louise Scottron. At 16, her mother pulled her out of school to audition for the chorus at the Cotton Club, where she danced before moving on to sing at nightclubs including Café Society and the Trocadero. She went on to sign a contract with MGM.

An active participant in the Civil Rights movement, Lena Mary Calhoun Horne received the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP. Her first marriage, to Louis Jones, produced two children, Gail and Teddy. She later married Lennie Hayton.

Her film credits include "The Wiz," "Cabin in the Sky," "Stormy Weather," "Meet Me in Las Vegas," "Till the Clouds Roll By," "Ziegfeld Follies," "Words and Music," "Thousands Cheer," "Death of a Gunfighter," "Two Girls and a Sailor," and "The Duke Is Tops." On television, she appeared in "The Cosby Show," "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In," "A Different World," "Sanford and Son," and "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson."

She received a star on the Walk of Fame in 1960 and a Kennedy Center Honor in 1984. Broadway theater marquees were dimmed in her honor on May 11, 2010. On November 1, 2022, she became the first Black woman to have a Broadway house named after her.