She was an actress who portrayed Helen Willis on the CBS sitcom The Jeffersons. Roker is the mother of rock musician Lenny Kravitz and paternal grandmother of actress Zoë Kravitz. Roker was born in Miami, Florida August 28th 1929 .Her mother, Bessie Roker was from Georgia and worked as a domestic. Her father, Albert Roker, was a porter and a native of Andros, The Bahamas.She grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Roker studied drama at Howard University where she was a pupil of celebrated drama teachers Anne Cooke Reid and Owen Dodson. Some of her fellow drama students at Howard included novelist Toni Morrison, She began her professional career with the Negro Ensemble Company and became a successful stage actress She was a reporter on WNEW-TV in New York in the 1970s and hosted a public affairs show for the station known as Inside Bed-Stuy, dealing with events in the Brooklyn neighborhood. Roker portrayed Helen Willis on The Jeffersons, She appeared in guest starring roles on many other United States television shows from the 1970s through the 1990s, including "Stone in the River" starring Hal Miller for NBC, Punky Brewster, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, A Different World, Murder, She Wrote, The Love Boat, $weepstake$, 227, Beat the Clock, Fantasy Island, and ABC Afterschool Specials. She had roles in the television miniseries Roots and in the movie Claudine. Roker was also a children’s advocate who was cited by the city of Los Angeles for her community work. Roker was married to television producer Sy Kravitz in 1962. Like her Jeffersons character Helen Willis, Roker had an interracial marriage . The couple had a son, singer-songwriter and actor Lenny Kravitz in 1964 and divorced in 1985. Weather anchor Al Roker and Roxie Roker were second cousins once removed. Roker died in Los Angeles, California, on December 2, 1995, of breast cancer. She was 66 - @celebrity.death.s