literary lives – Roxie Roker (1929 -1995) An actress of Bahamian descent who broke social barriers

Sir Christopher Ondaatje writes about the American actress who portrayed Helen Willis on the CBS sitcom “The Jeffersons” from 1975 to 1985. She played half of the first interracial couple to be shown on regular prime time television. She was also the mother of rock musician Lenny Kravitz, paternal grandmother of actress Zoë Kravitz, and cousin of broadcaster Al Roker. Her father was a porter and a native of Andros in the Bahamas.

“I felt Helen Willis was in tune in the situation of a Black woman married to a white man, and she had no problem being Black.”

– Roxie Roker

Roxie Albertha Roker was born on August 28, 1929, in Miami, Florida.

Her mother was Bessie Roker (née Mitchell) from Georgia, who worked as a domestic. Her father Albert Roker was a humble porter who was a native of Andros, the Bahamas. He immigrated to Miami, Florida, where he met and married Roker’s mother, and the family moved to Brooklyn, New York, when Roker was young. She grew up in Brooklyn.

Roker studied drama at Howard University, where she was a pupil of drama teachers Anna Cooke Reid an Owen Dodson.

Other drama students at Howard University included novelist Toni Morrison, actress Zaida Coles, playwright Shauneille Perry, and actor Graham Brown – all of whom were members of the university’s theatre group, the Howard Players.

Roker toured with the Howard Players in Norway in 1949 – a professional venture sponsored by the United States Department of State supported by the president’s wife Eleanor Roosevelt.

She began her career with the Negro Ensemble Company and worked her way to become a successful actress with the company.

Roker won an Obie Award in 1974 and was nominated for a Tony Award for her portrayal of Mattie Williams in The River Niger. She was a reporter on WNEW-TV in New

York in the 1970s and hosted public affairs show for the station known as Inside Blue Sky dealing with events in the Brooklyn neighbourhood.

“I wish there was more for minorities than sitcoms.”

– Roxie Roker

Roker portrayed Helen Willis in “The Jeffersons”, breaking social barriers by becoming one half of the first Caucasian-African married couple, along with actor Franklin

Cover, as a regular cast member on prime-time TV.

“I don’t like that putdown: that when you’re trying to achieve you’re trying to be white. That makes me mad.”

– Roxie Roker

She appeared in many guest starring roles on several 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, Sweeptstake$, 227, Beat the Clock, Fantasy Island, and ABC Afterschool Specials. She had roles in Roots, and in the movie Claudine.

Roker was also a children’s advocate who was cited for her community work.

“I was very much part of the Civil Rights era, so, of course my fantasy was to marry some outstanding black gentleman, a leader – someone like Martin Luther King, who was doing something for black people.”

– Roxie Roker

Roxie Roker was married to television producer Sy Kravitz in 1962. They met at New York City’s Rockefeller Center. There, Sy Kravitz worked as an assignment editor for