Lena Horne hugs her daughter Gail Jones, backstage at the York Playhouse on October 6, 1960 after Gail made her stage debut in the musical Valmuouth. Gail Jones is now Gail Buckley and the author of several books including The Hornes: An American Family.” Photo: Bettman/Corbis. 

#BlackHistory Lena Horne and Ricardo Montalban with civil rights heroine Daisy Bates and the “Little Rock Nine,” at New York’s Imperial Theater on June 13, 1958. Horne and Montalban were starring in the musical, Jamaica at the theater.

The “Little Rock Nine” were the nine brave students who integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas on September 25, 1957. The students are Melba Patillo Beals, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Carlotta Walls Lanier, Terrance Roberts, Jefferson Thomas, Minnijean Brown Trickey, and Thelma Mothershed Wair.

Lena Horne snapped by Charles “Teenie” Harris doing her hair in her dressing room before a performance at the Stanley Theater in 1940s Pittsburgh. 

Lena Horne with cadets at the Tuskegee Airbase in Tuskegee, Alabama in 1945. 

Did you know that Lena Horne had her own line of cosmetics?

Lena Horne by Philippe Halsman. Photo via Time magazine.

missavagardner:

Lena Horne photographed by Philippe Halsman

Lena Horne photographed by Philippe Halsman.

(via afrobella)

vintageanchor:

James Baldwin and Lena Horne

James Baldwin and Lena Horne.

Lena Horne on a yacht with Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson on May 9, 1958. The legendary stars were sailing around Manhattan as guests of Mr. Olivier who was bidding farewell to his New York theater colleagues. Photo: Bettman/Corbis.

Lena Horne and Ricardo Montalban in rehearsal for the 1958 musical, Jamaica. 

Happy Thanksgiving! The great Lena Horne is really demonstrating fuel conservation here (circa 1940s) but let’s just pretend she just put a bird in the oven:)

classicalallure:

Diahann Carroll and Lena Horne

Diahann Carroll and Lena Horne in 1981.

(via nikki-freakin-fabulous)