Knowledge Session: Who Was Lena Horne?Posted in Articles, Arts, Biography, Media Archive, United States, Women on 2016-05-29 15:08Z by Steven |
Knowledge Session: Who Was Lena Horne?
I Am Hip-Hop
2015-07-07
Lena Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010) was born in Brooklyn, New York, on June 30, 1917. Her father, Edwin “Teddy” Horne, who worked in the gambling trade, left the family when Lena was three. Her mother, Edna, was an actress with an African American theater troupe and traveled extensively. Horne was mainly raised by her grandparents, Cora Calhoun and Edwin Horne. Yet, she still moved a great deal in her early years because her mother often took her with her on the road. They lived in various parts of the South before Horne was returned to her grandparents’ home in 1931. After they died, Horne lived with a friend of her mother’s, Laura Rollock. Shortly thereafter Edna remarried and Horne moved in with her mother and her mother’s new husband. The constant moving resulted in Lena having an education that was often interrupted. She attended various small-town, segregated (separated by race) school’s when in the South with her mother. In Brooklyn she attended the Ethical Cultural School, the Girls High School, and a secretarial school…
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