Lena Horne

Lena Horne, the groundbreaking African-American singer-actress received a Catholic funeral May 14 at St. Ignatius Church in Manhattan. Ms. Horne, 92, died May 9 in Manhattan.

The Funeral Mass, at St. Ignatius Loyola Church on Park Avenue, attracted hundreds of mourners, including many top names in the entertainment industry, including singers Leontyne Price, Dionne Warwick, Jessye Norman, Chita Rivera and actresses Cicely Tyson, Diahann Carroll, Lauren Bacall, Audra McDonald and Vanessa L. Williams. Ms. McDonald sang "Amazing Grace" and "This Little Light of Mine" at the funeral.

"She came here regularly earlier," Jesuit Father George Witt, pastor of St. Ignatius Loyola, said of Ms. Horne, who had receded from public view in recent years.

"Her daughter (best-selling author Gail Lumet Buckley) is a registered parishioner here and a daily communicant. There was a very strong family connection here over many years," Father Witt told Catholic News Service in a May18 telephone interview, adding the Funeral Mass "really was a family event here for all of us."

St. Ignatius has been no stranger to high-profile funerals, including those of Jacqueline Kennedy, Patricia Kennedy Lawford, and singer Aaliyah.

Father Witt said he learned something about Ms. Horne's character in the days after her death. "I've been struck by her strength. I'm struck by the beauty of her family," he said. "And so I just imagined how good a woman she must have been based on the family that grew up around her. She obviously meant so much to so many."

During World War II, when the mere act of whites and blacks performing together onstage generated controversy, Ms. Horne sang with saxophonist Charlie Barnet's big band.

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. Because the 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.

Born in Brooklyn, Ms. Horne got her start in show business in 1933 when she joined the Cotton Club revue. After a decade of radio, recording and nightclub work, she made her way to Hollywood, featured in such movies as "Stormy Weather," the title tune serving as her theme song.

Her film career was further stymied because movie exhibitors, mainly in the South, would cut scenes with black actors in otherwise white-dominated movies.

Ms. Horne, though, enjoyed a sustained recording career, adding television appearances to her resume. She also starred in a one-woman Broadway show, "Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music," which was a darling of critics in 1980.—CNS.