in history

NBC News at the time while Roker was a secretary before she became a star appearing on “The Jeffersons.”

Like her Jeffersons character, Helen Willis, she had an interracial marriage to a white man. They had a son, singer-songwriter and actor Lenny Kravitz, who was born on May 26, 1964. They were divorced in 1985. Lenny Kravitz still spends part of his life in Eleuthera.

“I have her pictures around, and there’s always a big portrait of her in my homes, wherever I am. I know that I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for her and all those who came before me. I celebrate my ancestors: I always think of them and always refer to them and have their images around because I know that those are the shoulders that I stand on, and I respect that very deeply.”

– Lenny Kravitz to People, 2020

Roker was also a second cousin once removed to famous weather anchor Al Roker, whose father, Albert Lincoln Roker Sr, was a bus driver of Bahamian descent.

She died in Los Angeles on December 2, 1995 of breast cancer. She was sixty-six years old.

Lenny Kravitz said he sees the “essence” of mother in his daughter, “The Batman” actress Zoë Kravitz.

Speaking of his late mother, the rockstar told Today: “She was a very beautiful human being.”

He told People magazine: “She was a woman who never spoke badly about anybody, even if they deserved it.”