Over a career spanning decades of social change and turbulence, Lena Horne, who died Sunday at 92, helped break down barriers for generations of performers, even as she weathered her own storms. USA TODAY traces Horne's life.

June 30, 1917:  Lena Mary Calhoun Horne is born in Brooklyn, N.Y.

1933:  At 16, Horne is hired as a dancer by Harlem's famous Cotton Club. While singing with Charlie Barnet's white orchestra, she's spotted by an MGM talent scout and becomes the first black actress signed to a long-term contract.

1938:  The singer makes her Hollywood debut in The Duke Is Tops. She refuses to pass as white, despite her light coloring. Her roles are often shot so that they can be easily cut from copies distributed to the South.

1943:  Shoots Cabin in the Sky, an all-black musical, and signature film Stormy Weather. She's the USA's highest-paid black actor — and a champion of civil rights for refusing to play to segregated audiences while entertaining the troops.

1950s:  Lands on the anti-Communist blacklist because of her friendship with Paul Robeson.

1957:  Records her classic album Lena Horne at the Waldorf Astoria. Joins the cast of the controversial Broadway musical Jamaica as Calypso, for which she's nominated for a Tony Award.

1959:  Horne and Harry Belafonte release their album Porgy and Bess.

1963:  Participates in the famous March on Washington. She performs at rallies all over the country for the National Council for Negro Women and speaks on behalf of the NAACP.

1978:  Returns to film for final time as Glinda the Good Witch in The Wiz with Diana Ross and Michael Jackson.

1980:  Receives an honorary doctorate from Howard University.

1981:  Launches her one-woman Broadway show, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music. She earns a special Tony Award, a New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and a Drama Desk Award. The live soundtrack also wins Horne a 1982 Grammy for female pop vocal.

1986:  Publishes autobiography, Lena.

1989:  Wins a lifetime achievement Grammy.


 
1994:  Makes her final appearances at The Supper Club in New York and Carnegie Hall. A live Supper Club recording released in 1995 wins a Grammy for best jazz vocal album.

1998:  Releases her album Being Myself and all but retires.

2006:  Blue Note releases Seasons of a Life, a Horne album of previously unreleased or rare tracks.

2009:  Author James Gavin wins acclaim for Stormy Weather: A Life of Lena Horne, a biography charting Horne's complicated paths.

May 9, 2010:  Horne dies in New York at 92.

May 18, 2010:  Verve Records and Hip-O Select will release Lena Horne Sings: The MGM Singles Collection, featuring recordings from the late '40s, co-produced and with liner notes by Gavin.

But some degrees are worth more than others, as PayScale.com shows in its 2010 report on the earning power of bachelor's degrees.

No surprise, engineering degrees continue to be top earners--and (also no big shocker) you have to go pretty far down the list before you see the liberal arts well represented.

But there's more to choosing a major than comparing dollar amounts. We salute and congratulate the graduates whose interests (and hard work) have led them to the following degrees--the lowest-earning degrees on PayScale's list.

10. Drama (starting annual salary: $35,600; mid-career annual salary: $56,600)
Some mega-millionaire movie stars with drama degrees (Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep, for instance) may be skewing these numbers upward--for every Denzel and Meryl, there are thousands of thespians struggling to make ends meet. But you don't study drama because you want to get rich--you study drama because you love the theater. (And an ability to act comes in handy in many professions.)

9. Fine arts (starting annual salary: $35,800; mid-career annual salary: $56,300)
Well, it takes an artist to make a thrift-store wardrobe look like a million bucks.

8. Hospitality and tourism (starting annual salary: $37,000; mid-career annual salary: $54,300)
Jobs that include tips may be skewing these numbers downward--and this is an industry that looks to be on the rebound as the economy improves. Plus, the perks associated with jobs in hospitality and tourism may compensate for the comparatively low salaries--many jobs in the industry allow extensive travel (or provide considerable travel discounts).

7. Education (starting annual salary: $36,200; mid-career annual salary: $54,100)
For the right people, teaching is an immensely rewarding career--and it's truly a noble one. The good news is, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the employment opportunities for primary, secondary, and special education teachers are expected to grow by 14 percent in the coming decade. And there will be plenty of new opportunities in continuing education for adults, as professional skill requirements change ever more rapidly.

6. Horticulture (starting annual salary: $37,200; mid-career annual salary: $53,400)
It seems that a green thumb doesn't necessarily bring in the greenbacks. But when you work among flowers and plants in a nursery or garden, who needs 'em?

5. Spanish (starting annual salary: $35,600; mid-career annual salary: $52,600)
As an old proverb puts it, when you learn a new language, you "gain a new soul." Who could put a price on that? And certainly, knowing Spanish--the language with the second-highest number of native speakers (after Mandarin)--in addition to English opens up a world of job opportunities beyond Spanish teacher or translator (as a plus, you can better enjoy a world of fantastic Spanish-language music, movies, and literature).

4. Music (starting annual salary: $34,000; mid-career annual salary: $52,000)
Hey, if being a musician were easy, everyone would do it. Some of us are guitar heroes; most of us just play the video game.

3. Theology (starting annual salary: $34,800; mid-career annual salary: $51,500)
This is the perfect example of a degree earned by someone who's "not in it for the money": people who choose to study theology often feel they're pursuing a higher calling (and often feel a strong desire to do good in the world, no matter the cost).

2. Elementary education (starting annual salary: $33,000; mid-career annual salary: $42,400)
Specializing in elementary education means a lower median salary than an education degree (number 7).

1. Social work (starting annual salary: $33,400; mid-career annual salary: $41,600)
They say that crime doesn't pay. As this list seems to point out, neither does helping people. So it's a good thing that many college students seem to believe that helping others is its own reward--social workers are an indispensable safety net for people who've fallen on difficult times. And the BLS reports that the outlook for opportunities in this field are favorable--particularly for social workers who work in rural areas or with senior citizens.

(Source: PayScale salary survey. Methodology: Annual pay is for bachelor's graduates without higher degrees. Typical starting salaries are for graduates with two years of experience; mid-career salaries are for graduates with 15 years of experience. PayScale also provides salary information by college; for more information, check out PayScale's Best Colleges Report.)