Today we celebrate the life of the legendary Ms. Lena Horne. The New York Times reports, that Ms. Horne was the first black performer to be signed to a long-term contract by a major Hollywood studio and who went on to achieve international fame as a singer, died Sunday night at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York. She was 92 and lived in Manhattan.

Ms. Horne, who once revealed that she refused to ever play a maid in any movie role (a role soley based on and given to many African Americans in a time when being a leading actor/actress was still just a dream), broke down barriers and surpassed expectations of who she would become.

Ms. Horne is survived by her daughter, Gail Lumet Buckley. Her husband died in 1971; her son died of kidney failure the same year.