“She was a dynamic force,” Vanessa Williams tells ESSENCE.com. “She was a unique true beauty but she was a fighter for injustices and what can be better than that.”
“She was our leader, says Diahann Carroll. “I don’t remember anyone really before Lena Horne who took the steps the chances I think it was because she was extraordinary beautiful, I mean extraordinary beautiful and also gifted because she was able to kick down so many doors. She had a way about her that had to be dealt with and we are very fortunate to have her. I don’t think there will ever be another.”
Pallbearers carry the casket of late singer/actress Lena Horne into the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in New York City.
A funeral attendee holds a program which features a childhood photo of Lena Horne.
“When Lena said she would be there, she was there for so many of us. When Black people decided to make a stand, Lena Horne was there. Her life was no crystal stair, but she persevered,” said former New York City mayor David Dinkins (right), pictured with New York governor David Patterson.
Opera singer Jessye Norman also attended the funeral service for her friend Lena Horne.
A program from Horne’s funeral service.
Horne’s granddaughter Jenny Lumet is comforted by opera diva, Jessye Norman. “I think she is not over, she is quite infinite,” said Lumet. “When I was a little girl I loved her beauty. What makes her beauty different is the conflict that it brought to her.”
Director Sidney Lumet, who was once married to Horne’s daughter Gail, waits to enter the funeral service of his late mother-in-law.
“We should remember her as one of the greatest females that ever walked this earth,” said singer Dionne Warwick of Horne. “She was a wonderful woman, she cared, she gave, she loved. She taught me to always be who I am, always!”
Author Walter Mosley waits to enter the funeral service.
