Gail Lumet Buckley, Black family history chronicler, dead at 86

Gail Lumet Buckley, a noted chronicler of Black (and Black Catholic) life and the daughter of famed actress Lena Horne, has died in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 86.

Her passing was first reported by the New York Times on July 26, eight days after her death from heart failure. Her daughter, filmmaker Jenny Lumet, shared the news.

Born to Horne and her first husband Louis Jordan Jones in Pittsburgh in 1937, Buckley was raised Catholic among the nation’s Black elite and was poised to follow in her mother’s footsteps. She was a thespian in her school years but later became known for her talent as a writer, forgoing the Hollywood trappings associated with her family.

Though her mother was one of the first successful Black women in Hollywood—raising her daughter in California, New York, and Europe—Buckley chose to become a journalist, attending Radcliffe College (later part of Harvard University). She graduated in 1959 and worked in Paris before being hired by LIFE Magazine, where she continued to hone her craft.

She soon met her first husband, Sidney Lumet, a high-powered Jewish filmmaker known for his 1957 movie “12 Angry Men,” which was nominated for three Academy Awards and remains among silver screen lore. Their marriage produced two children, Jenny and Amy Lumet, before ending—partly due to religious reasons—in 1978.

Buckley eventually transitioned to writing books, chronicling her family history with “The Hornes” in 1986, acclaimed for its deft portrayal of her multi-ringed genealogy, from house slaves to journalists, educators to politicians, and even a mobster.

There was also the high-flying career of her mother Lena, whose impact on the acting profession overshadowed her somewhat troubled private life, which is explicated in her daughter’s debut tome.

“I didn’t see the book until it was done completely,” Horne told JET Magazine upon its release, offering a glowing appraisal. “I cried, like any mother’s reaction. It was very personal.”

“The Hornes” was adapted into an American Masters documentary from PBS in 1996. In 2001, Buckley released “American Patriots,” a Black military history inspired—like her debut—by long-lost family heirlooms. That book won the 2002 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award.

Another family history arrived from Buckley in 2016, “The Black Calhouns,” delving into the line of her great-grandmother, Cora Catherine Calhoun Horne. She was an early Black socialite and activist who cofounded the National Association of Colored Women and was an early member of the NAACP. 

During her more than six-decade career, Buckley wrote for Marie Claire, the Los Angeles Times, Vogue, the New York Daily News, and the New York Times. A lifelong Catholic, she also contributed to America Magazine, run by the Society of Jesus.

“Gail was one of the first regular columnists in America in the 1990s and a great friend to Jesuits in NYC,” wrote Fr James Martin, SJ on social media after her death. “She was a delight to work with. May she rest in peace.”

Buckley eventually relocated to California and her final book, “Radical Sanctity: Race and Radical Women in the American Catholic Church,” was released in 2023. It covers the lives of Philadelphia heiress-turned-nun St. Katharine Drexel and three others on the path to sainthood: the social anarchist Dorothy Day, Canadian interracial justice advocate Catherine Doherty, and famed educator and Black religious sister Thea Bowman.

Buckley was predeceased by her parents and her second husband, Kevin Buckley, with whom she was married from 1983 until his death. She is survived by her daughters and two grandchildren, actor Jake Cannavale and Sasha Weinstein.

Funeral arrangements for Buckley have not been announced.

Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger.

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