Thunderstorm near Garajau, Madeira

Weather is the state of the atmosphere, to the degree that it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy.^[1] Most weather phenomena occur in the troposphere,^[2][3] just below the stratosphere. Weather refers, generally, to day-to-day temperature and precipitation activity, whereas climate is the term for the average atmospheric conditions over longer periods of time.^[4] When used without qualification, "weather" is understood to be the weather of Earth.

Weather is driven by density (temperature and moisture) differences between one place and another. These differences can occur due to the sun angle at any particular spot, which varies by latitude from the tropics. The strong temperature contrast between polar and tropical air gives rise to the jet stream. Weather systems in the mid-latitudes, such as extratropical cyclones, are caused by instabilities of the jet stream flow. Because the Earth's axis is tilted relative to its orbital plane, sunlight is incident at different angles at different times of the year. On Earth's surface, temperatures usually range ±40 °C (100 °F to −40 °F) annually. Over thousands of years, changes in Earth's orbit affect the amount and distribution of solar energy received by the Earth and influence long-term climate and global climate change.

Surface temperature differences in turn cause pressure differences. Higher altitudes are cooler than lower altitudes due to differences in compressional heating. Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a future time and a given location. The atmosphere is a chaotic system, so small changes to one part of the system can grow to have large effects on the system as a whole. Human attempts to control the weather have occurred throughout human history, and there is evidence that human activity such as agriculture and industry has inadvertently modified weather patterns.

Studying how the weather works on other planets has been helpful in understanding how weather works on Earth. A famous landmark in the Solar System, Jupiter's Great Red Spot, is an anticyclonic storm known to have existed for at least 300 years. However, weather is not limited to planetary bodies. A star's corona is constantly being lost to space, creating what is essentially a very thin atmosphere throughout the Solar System. The movement of mass ejected from the Sun is known as the solar wind.

Cause[link]

Stratocumulus perlucidus clouds

On Earth,such as selena common weather phenomena include wind, cloud, rain, snow, fog and dust storms. Less common events include natural disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes, typhoons and ice storms. Almost all familiar weather phenomena occur in the troposphere (the lower part of the atmosphere).^[3] Weather does occur in the stratosphere and can affect weather lower down in the troposphere, but the exact mechanisms are poorly understood.^[5]

Weather occurs primarily due to density (temperature and moisture) differences between one place to another. These differences can occur due to the sun angle at any particular spot, which varies by latitude from the tropics. In other words, the farther from the tropics you lie, the lower the sun angle is, which causes those locations to be cooler due to the indirect sunlight.^[6] The strong temperature contrast between polar and tropical air gives rise to the jet stream.^[7] Weather systems in the mid-latitudes, such as extratropical cyclones, are caused by instabilities of the jet stream flow (see baroclinity).^[8] Weather systems in the tropics, such as monsoons or organized thunderstorm systems, are caused by different processes.

Because the Earth's axis is tilted relative to its orbital plane, sunlight is incident at different angles at different times of the year. In June the Northern Hemisphere is tilted towards the sun, so at any given Northern Hemisphere latitude sunlight falls more directly on that spot than in December (see Effect of sun angle on climate).^[9] This effect causes seasons. Over thousands to hundreds of thousands of years, changes in Earth's orbital parameters affect the amount and distribution of solar energy received by the Earth and influence long-term climate. (see Milankovitch cycles).^[10]

The uneven solar heating (the formation of zones of temperature and moisture gradients, or frontogenesis) can also be due to the weather itself in the form of cloudiness and precipitation.^[11] Higher altitudes are cooler than lower altitudes, which is explained by the lapse rate.^[12][13] On local scales, temperature differences can occur because different surfaces (such as oceans, forests, ice sheets, or man-made objects) have differing physical characteristics such as reflectivity, roughness, or moisture content.

Surface temperature differences in turn cause pressure differences. A hot surface heats the air above it and the air expands, lowering the air pressure and its density.^[14] The resulting horizontal pressure gradient accelerates the air from high to low pressure, creating wind, and Earth's rotation then causes curvature of the flow via the Coriolis effect.^[15] The simple systems thus formed can then display emergent behaviour to produce more complex systems and thus other weather phenomena. Large scale examples include the Hadley cell while a smaller scale example would be coastal breezes.

The atmosphere is a chaotic system, so small changes to one part of the system can grow to have large effects on the system as a whole.^[16] This makes it difficult to accurately predict weather more than a few days in advance, though weather forecasters are continually working to extend this limit through the scientific study of weather, meteorology. It is theoretically impossible to make useful day-to-day predictions more than about two weeks ahead, imposing an upper limit to potential for improved prediction skill.^[17]

Shaping the planet Earth[link]

Weather is one of the fundamental processes that shape the Earth. The process of weathering breaks down the rocks and soils into smaller fragments and then into their constituent substances.^[18] These are then free to take part in chemical reactions that can affect the surface further (such as acid rain) or are reformed into other rocks and soils. In this way, weather plays a major role in erosion of the surface.^[19]

Effect on humans[link]

Effects on populations[link]

New Orleans, Louisiana, after being struck by Hurricane Katrina. Katrina was a Category 3 hurricane when it struck although it had been a category 5 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico.

Weather has played a large and sometimes direct part in human history. Aside from climatic changes that have caused the gradual drift of populations (for example the desertification of the Middle East, and the formation of land bridges during glacial periods), extreme weather events have caused smaller scale population movements and intruded directly in historical events. One such event is the saving of Japan from invasion by the Mongol fleet of Kublai Khan by the Kamikaze winds in 1281.^[20] French claims to Florida came to an end in 1565 when a hurricane destroyed the French fleet, allowing Spain to conquer Fort Caroline.^[21] More recently, Hurricane Katrina redistributed over one million people from the central Gulf coast elsewhere across the United States, becoming the largest diaspora in the history of the United States.^[22]

The Little Ice Age caused crop failures and famines in Europe. The 1690s saw the worst famine in France since the Middle Ages. Finland suffered a severe famine in 1696–1697, during which about one-third of the Finnish population died.^[23]

Effects on individuals[link]

The human body is negatively affected by extremes in temperature, humidity, and wind.^[24]

Forecasting[link]

Forecast of surface pressures five days into the future for the north Pacific, North America, and north Atlantic ocean as on 9 June 2008

Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a future time and a given location. Human beings have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia, and formally since at least the nineteenth century.^[25][26] Weather forecasts are made by collecting quantitative data about the current state of the atmosphere and using scientific understanding of atmospheric processes to project how the atmosphere will evolve.^[27]

Once an all-human endeavor based mainly upon changes in barometric pressure, current weather conditions, and sky condition,^[28][29] forecast models are now used to determine future conditions. Human input is still required to pick the best possible forecast model to base the forecast upon, which involves pattern recognition skills, teleconnections, knowledge of model performance, and knowledge of model biases. The chaotic nature of the atmosphere, the massive computational power required to solve the equations that describe the atmosphere, error involved in measuring the initial conditions, and an incomplete understanding of atmospheric processes mean that forecasts become less accurate as the difference in current time and the time for which the forecast is being made (the range of the forecast) increases. The use of ensembles and model consensus helps to narrow the error and pick the most likely outcome.^[30][31][32]

There are a variety of end users to weather forecasts. Weather warnings are important forecasts because they are used to protect life and property.^[33][34] Forecasts based on temperature and precipitation are important to agriculture,^{[35][36][37][38]} and therefore to commodity traders within stock markets. Temperature forecasts are used by utility companies to estimate demand over coming days.^[39][40][41] On an everyday basis, people use weather forecasts to determine what to wear on a given day. Since outdoor activities are severely curtailed by heavy rain, snow and the wind chill, forecasts can be used to plan activities around these events, and to plan ahead and survive them.

Modification[link]

The aspiration to control the weather is evident throughout human history: from ancient rituals intended to bring rain for crops to the U.S. Military Operation Popeye, an attempt to disrupt supply lines by lengthening the North Vietnamese monsoon. The most successful attempts at influencing weather involve cloud seeding; they include the fog- and low stratus dispersion techniques employed by major airports, techniques used to increase winter precipitation over mountains, and techniques to suppress hail.^[42] A recent example of weather control was China's preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. China shot 1,104 rain dispersal rockets from 21 sites in the city of Beijing in an effort to keep rain away from the opening ceremony of the games on 8 August 2008. Guo Hu, head of the Beijing Municipal Meteorological Bureau (BMB), confirmed the success of the operation with 100 millimeters falling in Baoding City of Hebei Province, to the southwest and Beijing's Fangshan District recording a rainfall of 25 millimeters.^[43]

Whereas there is inconclusive evidence for these techniques' efficacy, there is extensive evidence that human activity such as agriculture and industry results in inadvertent weather modification:^[42]

• Acid rain, caused by industrial emission of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere, adversely affects freshwater lakes, vegetation, and structures.
• Anthropogenic pollutants reduce air quality and visibility.
• Climate change caused by human activities that emit greenhouse gases into the air is expected to affect the frequency of extreme weather events such as drought, extreme temperatures, flooding, high winds, and severe storms.^[44]

The effects of inadvertent weather modification may pose serious threats to many aspects of civilization, including ecosystems, natural resources, food and fiber production, economic development, and human health.^[45]

Extremes on Earth[link]

Early morning sunshine over Bratislava, Slovakia.

On Earth, temperatures usually range ±40 °C (100 °F to −40 °F) annually. The range of climates and latitudes across the planet can offer extremes of temperature outside this range. The coldest air temperature ever recorded on Earth is −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F), at Vostok Station, Antarctica on 21 July 1983. The hottest air temperature ever recorded was 57.7 °C (135.9 °F) at 'Aziziya, Libya, on 13 September 1922,^[46] but that reading is queried. The highest recorded average annual temperature was 34.4 °C (93.9 °F) at Dallol, Ethiopia.^[47] The coldest recorded average annual temperature was −55.1 °C (−67.2 °F) at Vostok Station, Antarctica.^[48] The coldest average annual temperature in a permanently inhabited location is at Eureka, Nunavut, in Canada, where the annual average temperature is −19.7 °C (−3.5 °F).^[49]

Extraterrestrial within the Solar System[link]

Jupiter's Great Red Spot in 1979.

Studying how the weather works on other planets has been seen as helpful in understanding how it works on Earth.^[50] Weather on other planets follows many of the same physical principles as weather on Earth, but occurs on different scales and in atmospheres having different chemical composition. The Cassini–Huygens mission to Titan discovered clouds formed from methane or ethane which deposit rain composed of liquid methane and other organic compounds.^[51] Earth's atmosphere includes six latitudinal circulation zones, three in each hemisphere.^[52] In contrast, Jupiter's banded appearance shows many such zones,^[53] Titan has a single jet stream near the 50th parallel north latitude,^[54] and Venus has a single jet near the equator.^[55]

One of the most famous landmarks in the Solar System, Jupiter's Great Red Spot, is an anticyclonic storm known to have existed for at least 300 years.^[56] On other gas giants, the lack of a surface allows the wind to reach enormous speeds: gusts of up to 600 metres per second (about 2,100 km/h or 1,300 mph) have been measured on the planet Neptune.^[57] This has created a puzzle for planetary scientists. The weather is ultimately created by solar energy and the amount of energy received by Neptune is only about ¹⁄₉₀₀ of that received by Earth, yet the intensity of weather phenomena on Neptune is far greater than on Earth.^[58] The strongest planetary winds discovered so far are on the extrasolar planet HD 189733 b, which is thought to have easterly winds moving at more than 9,600 kilometres per hour (6,000 mph).^[59]

Space weather[link]

Aurora Borealis

Weather is not limited to planetary bodies. Like all stars, the sun's corona is constantly being lost to space, creating what is essentially a very thin atmosphere throughout the Solar System. The movement of mass ejected from the Sun is known as the solar wind. Inconsistencies in this wind and larger events on the surface of the star, such as coronal mass ejections, form a system that has features analogous to conventional weather systems (such as pressure and wind) and is generally known as space weather. Coronal mass ejections have been tracked as far out in the solar system as Saturn.^[60] The activity of this system can affect planetary atmospheres and occasionally surfaces. The interaction of the solar wind with the terrestrial atmosphere can produce spectacular aurorae,^[61] and can play havoc with electrically sensitive systems such as electricity grids and radio signals.^[62]

See also[link]

• Weather station
• Personal weather station
• Climate
• Outline of meteorology

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Weather

• Climate and Weather from UCB Libraries GovPubs
• The Economics of Extreme Weather Events on Society NOAA Economics
• RainRadar: Worldwide radar directory
• National Weather Service

Lena Horne
Horne in her stage show, Nine O'Clock Revue, 1961.
Background information
Birth name	Lena Mary Calhoun Horne
Born	(1917-06-30)June 30, 1917 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died	May 9, 2010(2010-05-09) (aged 92) New York City, New York, U.S.
Genres	Broadway, traditional pop, vocal jazz
Occupations	Singer, dancer, actress, civil rights activist, recording artists
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1933–2000
Labels	MGM, RCA Victor, United Artists, Blue Note, Qwest/Warner Bros. Records
Associated acts	Harry Belafonte, Tony Bennett, Vic Damone, Judy Garland, Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Billie Holiday, Sammy Davis, Jr., Barbra Streisand, Teddy Wilson

Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010) was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.

Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the films Cabin in the Sky and Stormy Weather. Due to the Red Scare and her left-leaning political views, Horne found herself blacklisted and unable to get work in Hollywood.^[1]

Returning to her roots as a nightclub performer, Horne took part in the March on Washington in August 1963, and continued to work as a performer, both in nightclubs and on television, while releasing well-received record albums. She announced her retirement in March 1980, but the next year starred in a one-woman show, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music, which ran for more than three hundred performances on Broadway and earned her numerous awards and accolades. She continued recording and performing sporadically into the 1990s, disappearing from the public eye in 2000.

Early life[link]

Horne was born in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn.^[1] Reported to be descended from the John C. Calhoun family, both sides of her family were a mixture of European American, Native American, and African American descent, and each belonged to what W. E. B. Du Bois called "The Talented Tenth", the upper stratum of middle-class, well-educated blacks, some of whom were mixed race.^[2][3]

Her father, Edwin Fletcher "Teddy" Horne, Jr. (1892–1970),^[4][5] a numbers kingpin in the gambling trade, left the family when she was three and moved to an upper-middle-class black community in the Hill District community of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.^[6][7] Her mother, Edna Louise Scottron (1895–1985), daughter of inventor Samuel R. Scottron, was an actress with a black theatre troupe and traveled extensively. Scottron's maternal grandmother, Amelie Louise Ashton, was a Senegalese slave.^[8] Lena Horne was mainly raised by her grandparents, Cora Calhoun and Edwin Horne.^[5]

When Horne was five, she was sent to live in Georgia.^[9] For several years, she traveled with her mother.^[10] From 1927 to 1929 she lived with her uncle, Frank S. Horne, who was dean of students at Fort Valley Junior Industrial Institute in Fort Valley, Georgia ^[10] and who would later become an adviser to Franklin Delano Roosevelt.^[11]

From Fort Valley, southwest of Macon, Horne briefly moved to Atlanta with her mother; they returned to New York when Horne was 12 years old.^[10] She then attended Girls High School, an all-girls public high school in Brooklyn which has since become Boys and Girls High School; she dropped out without earning a diploma. Aged 18, she moved in with her father in Pittsburgh, staying in the city's Little Harlem for almost five years and learning from native Pittsburghers Billy Strayhorn and Billy Eckstine, among others.^[12]

Career[link]

Road to Hollywood[link]

In the fall of 1933, Horne joined the chorus line of the Cotton Club in New York City. In the spring of 1934, she had a featured role in the Cotton Club Parade starring Adelaide Hall who took Lena under her wing. A few years later she joined Noble Sissle's Orchestra, with which she toured and with whom she recorded her first record release, a 78rpm single issued by Decca Records. After she separated from her first husband, Horne toured with bandleader Charlie Barnet in 1940–41, but disliked the travel and left the band to work at the Café Society in New York. She replaced Dinah Shore as the featured vocalist on NBC's popular jazz series The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street. The show's resident maestros, Henry Levine and Paul Laval, recorded with Horne in June 1941 for RCA Victor. Horne left the show after only six months to headline a nightclub revue on the West Coast, and was replaced by Linda Keene.^{[citation needed]}

Lena Horne photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1941

Horne already had two low-budget movies to her credit: a 1938 musical feature called The Duke is Tops (later reissued with Horne's name above the title as The Bronze Venus); and a 1941 two-reel short subject, Boogie Woogie Dream, featuring pianists Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons. Horne's songs from Boogie Woogie Dream were later released individually as soundies. Horne was primarily a nightclub performer during this period, and it was during a 1943 club engagement in Hollywood that talent scouts approached Horne to work in pictures. She chose Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and became the first black performer to sign a long-term contract with a major Hollywood studio. November 1944 she was featured in an episode of the popular radio series, Suspense, as a fictional nightclub singer, with a large speaking role along with her singing. In 1945 and 1946 she sang with Billy Eckstine's Orchestra.

She made her debut with MGM in Panama Hattie (1942) and performed the title song of Stormy Weather based loosely on the life of Adelaide Hall, (1943), which she made at 20th Century Fox, on loan from MGM. She appeared in a number of MGM musicals, most notably Cabin in the Sky (also 1943), but was never featured in a leading role because of her race and the fact that films featuring her had to be re-edited for showing in states where theaters could not show films with black performers. As a result, most of Horne's film appearances were stand-alone sequences that had no bearing on the rest of the film, so editing caused no disruption to the storyline; a notable exception was the all-black musical Cabin in the Sky, although one number was cut because it was considered too suggestive by the censors. "Ain't it the Truth" was the song (and scene) cut before the release of the film Cabin in the Sky. It featured Horne singing "Ain't it the Truth", while taking a bubble bath (considered too "risqué" by the film's executives). This scene and song are featured in the film That's Entertainment! III (1994) which also featured commentary from Horne on why the scene was deleted prior to the film's release.

Horne in Till the Clouds Roll By, 1946

In Ziegfeld Follies (1946) she performed "Love" by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane. Horne wanted to be considered for the role of Julie LaVerne in MGM's 1951 version of Show Boat (having already played the role when a segment of Show Boat was performed in Till the Clouds Roll By) but lost the part to Ava Gardner, a personal friend in real life, due to the Production Code's ban on interracial relationships in films. In the documentary That's Entertainment! III Horne stated that MGM executives required Gardner to practice her singing using Horne's recordings, which offended both actresses. Ultimately, Gardner's voice was overdubbed by actress Annette Warren (Smith) for the theatrical release.

Changes of direction[link]

By the mid-1950s, Horne was disenchanted with Hollywood and increasingly focused on her nightclub career. She only made two major appearances in MGM films during the 1950s: Duchess of Idaho (which was also Eleanor Powell's film swan song); and the 1956 musical Meet Me in Las Vegas. She was blacklisted during the 1950s for her political views.^[13] She returned to the screen three more times, playing chanteuse Claire Quintana in the 1969 film Death of a Gunfighter, Glinda in The Wiz (film) (1978), and co-hosting the 1994 MGM retrospective That's Entertainment! III, in which she was candid about her treatment by the studio.

After leaving Hollywood, Horne established herself as one of the premiere nightclub performers of the post-war era. She headlined at clubs and hotels throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe, including the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, the Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles, and the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. In 1957, a live album entitled, Lena Horne at the Waldorf-Astoria, became the biggest selling record by a female artist in the history of the RCA-Victor label. In 1958, Horne was nominated for a Tony Award for "Best Actress in a Musical" (for her part in the "Calypso" musical Jamaica) which, at Lena's request featured her longtime friend Adelaide Hall.

Horne performing on The Bell Telephone Hour, 1965.

From the late 1950s through the 1960s, Horne was a staple of TV variety shows, appearing multiple times on Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Dean Martin Show, and The Bell Telephone Hour. Other programs she appeared on included The Judy Garland Show, The Hollywood Palace, and The Andy Williams Show. Besides two television specials for the BBC (later syndicated in the U.S.), Horne starred in her own U.S. television special in 1969, Monsanto Night Presents Lena Horne. During this decade, the artist Pete Hawley painted her portrait for RCA Victor, capturing the mood of her performance style.and she also had 2 kids

In 1970, she co-starred with Harry Belafonte in the hour-long Harry & Lena for ABC; in 1973, she co-starred with Tony Bennett in Tony and Lena. Horne and Bennett subsequently toured the U.S. and U.K. in a show together. In the 1976 program America Salutes Richard Rodgers, she sang a lengthy medley of Rodgers songs with Peggy Lee and Vic Damone. Horne also made several appearances on The Flip Wilson Show.

Additionally, Horne played herself on television programs such as The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, and Sanford and Son in the 1970s, as well as a 1985 performance on The Cosby Show and a 1993-appearance on A Different World. In the summer of 1980, Horne, 63 years old and intent on retiring from show business, embarked on a two month series of benefit concerts sponsored by Delta Sigma Theta. These concerts were represented as Horne's farewell tour, yet her retirement lasted less than a year.

On April 13, 1980, Horne, Luciano Pavarotti, and host Gene Kelly were all scheduled to appear at a Gala performance at the Metropolitan Opera House to salute the N Y City Center's Joffrey Ballet Company. However, Pavarotti's plane was diverted over the Atlantic and he was unable to appear. James Nederlander was an invited Honored Guest and noted that only three people at the sold out Metropolitan Opera House asked for their money back. He asked to be introduced to Lena following her performance. In May 1981, The Nederlander Organization, Michael Frazier, and Fred Walker went on to book Horne for a four-week engagement at the newly named Nederlander Theatre (formerly the Trafalgar, the Billy Rose, and the National) on West 41st Street in New York City. The show was an instant success and was extended to a full year run, garnering Horne a special Tony award, and two Grammy Awards for the cast recording of her show Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music. The 333-performance Broadway run closed on Horne's 65th birthday, June 30, 1982. Later that same week, the entire show was performed again and videotaped for television broadcast and home video release. The tour began a few days later at Tanglewood (Massachusetts) during the July 4, 1982 weekend. The Lady and Her Music toured 41 cities in the U.S. and Canada through June 17, 1984. It played in London for a month in August and ended its run in Stockholm, Sweden, September 14, 1984.

In 1981, she received a Special Tony Award for her one-woman show, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music, which also played to acclaim at the Adelphi Theatre in London in 1984.^[14] Despite the show's considerable success (Horne still holds the record for the longest-running solo performance in Broadway history), she did not capitalize on the renewed interest in her career by undertaking many new musical projects. A proposed 1983 joint recording project between Horne and Frank Sinatra (to be produced by Quincy Jones) was ultimately abandoned, and her sole studio recording of the decade was 1988's The Men in My Life, featuring duets with Sammy Davis, Jr. and Joe Williams. In 1989, she received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

The 1990s found Horne considerably more active in the recording studio - all the more remarkable considering she was approaching her 80th year. Following her 1993 performance at a tribute to the musical legacy of her good friend Billy Strayhorn (Duke Ellington's longtime collaborator), she decided to record an album composed largely of Strayhorn's and Ellington's songs the following year, We'll Be Together Again. To coincide with the release of the album, Horne made what would be her final concert performances at New York's Supper Club and Carnegie Hall. That same year, Horne also lent her vocals to a recording of "Embraceable You" on Sinatra's Duets II album. Though the album was largely derided by critics, the Sinatra-Horne pairing was generally regarded as its highlight.^{[citation needed]}

In 1995, a 'live' album capturing her Supper Club performance was released (subsequently winning a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album). In 1998, Horne released another studio album, entitled Being Myself. Thereafter, Horne essentially retired from performing and largely retreated from public view, though she did return to the recording studio in 2000 to contribute vocal tracks on Simon Rattle's Classic Ellington album.^{[citation needed]}

Civil rights activism[link]

Horne was long involved with the Civil Rights movement. In 1941, she sang at Cafe Society and worked with Paul Robeson. During World War II, when entertaining the troops for the USO, she refused to perform "for segregated audiences or for groups in which German POWs were seated in front of African American servicemen",^[15] according to her Kennedy Center biography. Because the U.S. Army refused to allow integrated audiences, she wound up putting on a show for a mixed audience of black U.S. soldiers and white German POWs. Seeing the black soldiers had been forced to sit in the back seats, she walked off the stage to the first row where the black troops were seated and performed with the Germans behind her. She was at an NAACP rally with Medgar Evers in Jackson, Mississippi, the weekend before Evers was assassinated. She also met President John F. Kennedy at the White House two days before he was assassinated. She was at the March on Washington and spoke and performed on behalf of the NAACP, SNCC, and the National Council of Negro Women. She also worked with Eleanor Roosevelt to pass anti-lynching laws.^[16] She was a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.

Tom Lehrer mentions her in his song "National Brotherhood Week" in the line "Lena Horne and Sheriff Clark are dancing cheek to cheek" referring (wryly) to her and to Sheriff Jim Clark, of Selma, Alabama, who was responsible for a violent attack on civil rights marchers in 1965.

Personal life[link]

Horne married Louis Jordan Jones in January 1937 in Pittsburgh. On December 21, 1937, their daughter, Gail (later known as Gail Lumet Buckley, a best-selling author) was born there.^[17] and a son, Edwin Jones (born February 7, 1940 – September 12, 1970)^[4] who died of kidney disease.^[5] Horne and Jones separated in 1940 and divorced in 1944.

Horne's second marriage was to Lennie Hayton, one of the premier musical conductors and arrangers at MGM, in December 1947 in Paris. They separated in the early 1960s, but never divorced; he died in 1971.^[18]

In her as-told-to autobiography Lena by Richard Schickel, Horne recounts the enormous pressures she and her husband faced as an interracial couple. She later admitted in an Ebony, May 1980 interview she had married Hayton to advance her career and cross the "color-line" in show business, but had learned to love him in a way.^[19]

Screenwriter Jenny Lumet, known for her award-winning screenplay Rachel Getting Married, is Horne's granddaughter, the daughter of filmmaker Sidney Lumet and Horne's daughter Gail.^[20] Horne's other grandchildren include Gail's other daughter, Amy Lumet, and her son's three children, Thomas, William, and Lena.

Death[link]

Horne died on Mothers Day, May 9, 2010, in New York City of heart failure. Horne's funeral took place at St. Ignatius Loyola Church on Park Avenue in New York City. Thousands gathered to mourn her, including Leontyne Price, Dionne Warwick, Jessye Norman, Chita Rivera, Cicely Tyson, Diahann Carroll, Leslie Uggams, Lauren Bacall, Audra McDonald, Vanessa L. Williams .

Legacy[link]

In 2003, ABC announced that Janet Jackson would star as Horne in a television biopic. In the weeks following Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" debacle during the 2004 Super Bowl, however, Variety reported that Horne demanded Jackson be dropped from the project. "ABC executives resisted Horne's demand", according to the Associated Press report, "but Jackson representatives told the trade newspaper that she left willingly after Horne and her daughter, Gail Lumet Buckley, asked that she not take part." Oprah Winfrey stated to Alicia Keys during a 2005 interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show that she might possibly consider producing the biopic herself, casting Keys as Horne.^{[citation needed]}

In January 2005, Blue Note Records, her label for more than a decade, announced that "the finishing touches have been put on a collection of rare and unreleased recordings by the legendary Horne made during her time on Blue Note." Remixed by her longtime producer Rodney Jones, the recordings featured Horne in remarkably secure voice for a woman of her years, and include versions of such signature songs as "Something to Live For", "Chelsea Bridge", and "Stormy Weather". The album, originally titled Soul but renamed Seasons of a Life, was released on January 24, 2006.

In 2007, Horne was portrayed by Leslie Uggams as the older Lena and Nikki Crawford as the younger Lena in the stage musical Stormy Weather staged at the Pasadena Playhouse in California (January through March 2009).

In 2011 Horne was also portrayed by actress Ryan Jillian in a one woman show titled "Notes from A Horne" staged at the Susan Batson studio in New York City, From November 2011 to February 2012.

The 83rd Academy Awards presented a tribute to Horne by actress Halle Berry at the ceremony held February 27, 2011.^[21]

Awards and recognition[link]

Grammy Awards[link]

Other awards[link]

Filmography[link]

Film[link]

The Duke Is Tops (1938) Panama Hattie (1942) Cabin in the Sky (1943) Stormy Weather (1943) Thousands Cheer (1943) I Dood It (1943) Swing Fever (1943) Boogie-Woogie Dream (1944) Broadway Rhythm (1944) Two Girls and a Sailor (1944) Studio Visit (1946)

Till the Clouds Roll By (1946) Ziegfeld Follies (1946) Words and Music (1948) Some of the Best (1949) Duchess of Idaho (1950) Meet Me in Las Vegas (1956) The Heart of Show Business (1957) Now (1965) (includes Horne's performance of the song "Now!") Death of a Gunfighter (1969) (includes Lena Horne's vocals on the song "Sweet Apple Wine") The Wiz (1978) That's Entertainment! III (1994)

Television[link]

What's My Line? (as Mystery Guest, September 27, 1953) The Judy Garland Show (as herself, October 13, 1963) Sesame Street (as herself, 1971) Sanford & Son ("A Visit from Lena Horne" as herself, #2. January 12, 1973)

The Muppet Show (as herself, 1976) Sesame Street (as herself, Episode 11, November 1, 1976) The Cosby Show ("Cliff's Birthday" as herself, May 9, 1985) A Different World ("A Rock, a River, a Lena" as herself, July 1993)

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Moanin' Low (1942; A Victor Musical Smart Set) Little Girl Blue (1947; Black & White) Classics in Blue (1947; Black & White) It's Love (1955; RCA) Lena Horne at the Waldorf Astoria (1957; RCA) - Live Stormy Weather (1956–1957; RCA) Lena Horne at the Cocoanut Grove (1957; RCA) - Live Jamaica [Original Cast Recording] (1957; RCA) Give the Lady What She Wants (1958; RCA) Porgy & Bess (1959; RCA) - with Harry Belafonte Songs by Burke and Van Heusen (1960; RCA) Lena Horne at the Sands (1961; RCA) - Live Lena on the Blue Side (1962; RCA) Lena...Lovely and Alive (1962; RCA) Lena Horne Sings Your Requests (1963; Charter) Lena Like Latin (later retitled Lena Goes Latin) (1963; Charter) Here's Lena Now! (1964; 20th Century)

Feelin' Good (1965; United Artists) Lena in Hollywood (1966; United Artists) Merry from Lena (1966; United Artists) Soul (1966; United Artists) Lena & Gabor (1970; Skye) - with Gábor Szabó Harry & Lena (1970; RCA) - with Harry Belafonte Nature's Baby (1971; Buddha) Lena & Michel (1975; RCA) - with Michel Legrand Lena: A New Album (1976; RCA) Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music (1981; Qwest) - Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance The Men in My Life (1988; Three Cherries) - with Joe Williams and Sammy Davis, Jr. We'll Be Together Again (1994; Blue Note) An Evening with Lena Horne (1995; Blue Note) - Live, Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album Being Myself (1998; Blue Note) Seasons of a Life (2006; Blue Note; recorded 1994-2000) Lena Horne Sings - The MGM Singles (2010; Verve; recorded 1946-1947)

Singles[link]

As featured vocalist[link]

• A:"That's What Love Did To Me" (Sammy Cahn, Saul Chaplin) / B:"I Take To You" (Mack Gordon, Harry Warren)

Issued in 1936 on 78rpm 10" vinyl by Decca Records on Decca 778B. Credits Noble Sissle and His Orchestra,^[28] Lena Horne was credited as Helena Horne for this recording. Recorded on the 3rd of November 1936 in New York.

• "Stormy Weather" (1943)
• "Love Me or Leave Me" (1955) #19 U.S. Pop

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b} "Lena Horne - About the Performer | American Masters | PBS". PBS. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/lena-horne/about-the-performer/487/. Retrieved December 18, 2011. 
2. ^ William Ruhlmann (2008). "Artist: Lena Horne Biography". Allmusic. http://www.answers.com/topic/lena-horne. Retrieved 2008-08-010. 
3. ^ The Economist (May 20, 2010). "Lena Horne, entertainer, died on May 9th, aged 92". BlackAmericaWeb. http://www.economist.com/node/16160124?story_id=16160124. Retrieved 2010-07-23. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Vh1 biography
5. ^ ^{a b c} McLellan, Dennis; Nelson, Valerie J. (2010-05-10). "Lena Horne dies at 92; singer and civil rights activist who broke barriers". Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-horne-20100510,0,1501683,full.story. Retrieved 2010-05-10. 
6. ^ "Pittsburgh Played Role In Lena Horne's Life". KDKA. 2010-05-10. http://kdka.com/entertainment/Lena.Horne.Pittsburgh.2.1686377.html. Retrieved 2010-05-10. 
7. ^ Brewer, John M. (2007). Pittsburgh Jazz. Arcadia Publishing. p. 14. ISBN [[Special:BookSources/917800738549804|917800738549804]]. 
8. ^ Schickel (1965), p. 7
9. ^ "Lena Horne on Tonight Show 1982 - Part 1". NBC/YouTube. 1982. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvcuwCNIJVE. Retrieved "2010-05-10. 
10. ^ ^{a b c} "Lena Horne". New Georgia Encyclopedia. http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-1691. Retrieved 2010-05-10. 
11. ^ Augustus F. Hawkins (November 18, 1992) (trasnscript). Black Leadership in Los Angeles: Tape Number: II, Side Two, pp. 66-67. Interview with Clyde Woods. http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=hb858011v4&brand=calisphere&doc.view=entire_text. Retrieved 2009-01-08. 
12. ^ Lena Horne Post-Gazette profile
13. ^ "American Masters: Lena Horne". PBS. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/horne_l.html. Retrieved 2009-01-08. 
14. ^ The Times, obituary 11 May 2010.
15. ^ Kennedy Center: Biographical information for Lena Horne
16. ^ Lena Horne biography
17. ^ Gail Lumet Buckley profile
18. ^ Telegraph obituary
19. ^ Company, Johnson Publishing (1980-05). Ebony. http://books.google.com/?id=NDbcot0HasEC&lpg=PA38&dq=Ebony%201980%20Lena%20Horne&pg=PA44#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
20. ^ Ebert, Roger (2008-10-10). "Ella unenchanted goes to a wedding - Demme explores concept of family". Chicago Sun-Times. p. B1. 
21. ^ "'The King's Speech', Colin Firth, Natalie Portman Take Top Honors at 2011 Academy Awards". Moviefone. http://www.popeater.com/2011/02/28/2011-oscar-winners. Retrieved February 28, 2011. 
22. ^ Grammy Award Database
23. ^ "&Nbsp". Los Angeles Times. http://theenvelope.latimes.com/factsheets/awardsdb/env-awards-db-search,0,7169155.htmlstory. 
24. ^ International Civil Rights Walk of Fame
25. ^ ASCAP Award
26. ^ Kennedy Center Database
27. ^ Kennedy Center Horne bio
28. ^ http://www.redhotjazz.com/sissleo.html

Bibliography[link]

• Horne, Lena and Schickel, Richard, Lena, Doubleday, 1965 ISBN 978-0-385-08034-7
• Haskins, James and Benson, Kathleen Lena, Stein and Day, 1984 ISBN 0-8128-2853-4
• Gavin, James, Stormy Weather, The Life of Lena Horne, Atria 2009 ISBN 978-0-7432-7143-1

External links[link]

Biography portal

	Book: Lena Horne
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lena Horne

• Lena Horne at the Internet Movie Database
• Lena Horne at the Internet Broadway Database
• Lena Horne discography at Discogs
• Lena-Horne Tribute Site
• Entry in the New Georgia Encyclopedia
• Biography
• Remembering Lena Horne - slideshow by Life magazine
• Lena Mary Calhoun Horne
• Lena Horne turns 80
• Remembering the great Lena Horne
• Pioneering African American Actress, Singer and Civil Rights Activist Lena Horne, 92, Dies - video report by Democracy Now!
• Literature on Lena Horne

v t e Lena Horne Albums It's Love Give the Lady What She Wants Porgy & Bess Songs by Burke and Van Heusen Lena Horne at the Sands Lena on the Blue Side Lena Sings Your Requests Lena Like Latin Lena in Hollywood Merry from Lena Soul Lena & Gabor Harry & Lena Lena & Michel Lena: A New Album The Men in My Life We'll Be Together Again An Evening with Lena Horne Being Myself Seasons of a Life Singles "Stormy Weather" "Love Me or Leave Me" Radio The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street Television Kraft Music Hall The Ed Sullivan Show The Dean Martin Show The Bell Telephone Hour What's My Line? The Judy Garland Show The Hollywood Palace The Andy Williams Show Sesame Street The Muppet Show Sanford and Son The Cosby Show A Different World Filmography The Duke Is Tops Panama Hattie Cabin in the Sky Stormy Weather Thousands Cheer I Dood It Broadway Rhythm Two Girls and a Sailor Till the Clouds Roll By Ziegfeld Follies Words and Music Duchess of Idaho Meet Me in Las Vegas Death of a Gunfighter The Wiz That's Entertainment! III Associated acts Harry Belafonte Duke Ellington Billy Strayhorn Billie Holiday Sammy Davis, Jr. Teddy Wilson Related topics Lennie Hayton Jenny Lumet Sidney Lumet Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music Book:Lena Horne

v t e Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical (1975–2000) Angela Lansbury (1975) Donna McKechnie (1976) Clamma Dale (1977) Nell Carter (1978) Angela Lansbury (1979) Patti LuPone (1980) Lena Horne (1981) Jennifer Holliday (1982) Natalia Makarova (1983) Chita Rivera (1984) Bernadette Peters (1986) Teresa Stratas (1987) Patti LuPone (1988) Toni DiBuono (1989) Tyne Daly (1990) Lea Salonga (1991) Faith Prince (1992) Chita Rivera (1993) Donna Murphy (1994) Glenn Close (1995) Julie Andrews (1996) Bebe Neuwirth (1997) Natasha Richardson (1998) Carolee Carmello / Bernadette Peters (1999) Heather Headley (2000) Complete list (1975–2000) (2001–2025)

v t e Kennedy Center Honorees (1980s) 1980 Leonard Bernstein James Cagney Agnes de Mille Lynn Fontanne Leontyne Price 1981 Count Basie Cary Grant Helen Hayes Jerome Robbins Rudolf Serkin 1982 George Abbott Lillian Gish Benny Goodman Gene Kelly Eugene Ormandy 1983 Katherine Dunham Elia Kazan Frank Sinatra James Stewart Virgil Thomson 1984 Lena Horne Danny Kaye Gian Carlo Menotti Arthur Miller Isaac Stern 1985 Merce Cunningham Irene Dunne Bob Hope Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Loewe Beverly Sills 1986 Lucille Ball Hume Cronyn & Jessica Tandy Yehudi Menuhin Antony Tudor Ray Charles 1987 Perry Como Bette Davis Sammy Davis, Jr. Nathan Milstein Alwin Nikolais 1988 Alvin Ailey George Burns Myrna Loy Alexander Schneider Roger L. Stevens 1989 Harry Belafonte Claudette Colbert Alexandra Danilova Mary Martin William Schuman complete list 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s

Persondata
Name	Horne, Lena
Alternative names	Horne, Lena Mary Calhoun
Short description	Singer, actress, activist
Date of birth	1917-06-30
Place of birth	Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Date of death	2010-05-09
Place of death	New York City, New York, U.S.