Lena Horne: 1917 - 2010

Lena Horne, the enchanting jazz singer and actress who reviled the bigotry that allowed her to entertain white audiences but not socialize with them, slowing her rise to Broadway superstardom, died Sunday. She was 92. Source: AP

Singer Lena Horne died Sunday May 9 at the age of 92. "I was unique in that I was a kind of black that white people could accept," Horne once said. "I was their daydream. I had the worst kind of acceptance because it was never for how great I was or what I contributed. It was because of the way I looked."    

In this file photo from July of 1982, Lena Horne is seen performing. Source: AP

This is a April 7, 1994 file photo of singer-actress in New York City. Singer Lena Horne, who broke racial barriers as a Hollywood and Broadway star famed for her velvety rendition of "Stormy Weather," has died at age 92.  Source: AP

In a June 23, 1997 file photo Ginny Mancini, left, and Lena Horne, center, hold the Ella Award which was given to Horne, on Monday, June 23, 1997, during the Society of Singers' Lena Horne 80th Birthday Gala in New York. At right is Liza Minnelli. Source: AP

In a March 7, 1982 file photo Grammy Award winner Lena Horne, center, is flanked by record producer Quincy Jones, left, holding his Grammy, and Dan Morgenstern, of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, as she displays her award, and the record that earned it, in New York. Source: AP

In an Oct. 12, 1955 file photo singer and actress Lena Horne and her husband Lennie Hayton are photographed in their hotel room at the Savoy in London, England. Singer Lena Horne, who broke racial barriers as a Hollywood and Broadway star famed for her velvety rendition of "Stormy Weather," has died at age 92.

In an April 30, 1981 file photo singer Lena Horne is shown in a Broadway production "Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music" in New York.  Source: AP

In this March 1954 file photo, singer Lena Horne performs at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, Nev.  Source: AP (AP1954)

March 29, 1993: File photo of singer-actress Lena Horne at the 65th Annual Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, Calif. Source: AP

Many argued that Horne would have been a major movie star, had she been born a few decades later. But in her time, the racial barriers in Hollywood were too much to overcome.  

Singer Alicia Keys is rumored to be playing the singer in an upcoming biopic about Horne's life that will be produced by Oprah Winfrey.