My Dad Had a Crush on Lenny Kravitz's Mom

UPDATED: May 12, 2025. Lately, it seems you can’t look anywhere without seeing him. That sexy-as-hell Lenny Kravitz. Currently on tour and having recently invited us into his Paris home, he’s everywhere. Full disclosure: I follow him on Instagram. Why do I do that to myself?

So yes, like many other mature Black women, I name Lenny Kravitz as my celebrity crush.

Funny though. Back in the day, I’m pretty sure my dad had a crush on Lenny’s mom. Not a delusional, never-gonna-happen type of crush, either. A real one.

The beautiful and regal Roxie Roker.

For those of you not familiar with Roxie Roker, she was a beautiful brown-skinned actress who found success in Hollywood after years of performing in off-Broadway productions.

For a decade beginning in 1975, she became popular for portraying Helen Willis on the television sitcom The Jeffersons. But way before then, during the late 1940s and early 50s, she was a fine arts major at Howard University; a bubbly student from Brooklyn, New York.

She was a year behind my father, who was also a student at Howard, majoring in mathematics. Their paths crossed when he joined the school’s drama club, the Howard Players.

Dad didn’t have dreams of making it to the big stage or the big screen. However, he had a tendency of dipping his toes into a great many things. He had an innate curiosity, loved a good challenge, and enjoyed meeting people from all walks of life.

Roxie was one of the Howard Players’ shining stars. She was known for being very likable and down to earth. Having the same outgoing personality as my father, the two quickly formed a friendship.

Before long, Roxie was calling Dad, “Lonnie.” Now, this is important because his name was Alonzo Smith, Jr., and depending on one’s relationship with him, people commonly called him Smitty, Al, or Junior. I remember how Dad would gush when telling the story of how Roxie was the only person to ever call him Lonnie.

In the drama club, she gave him helpful pointers and encouragement, and he made her laugh. My father only had bit parts alongside Roxie in the ensemble’s performances. As an aspiring actress, she could’ve easily dismissed him as a novice who was just looking for a new hobby. After all, Roxie was a serious drama student. She soaked up her training like a sponge and earned major roles in the troupe’s productions.

The Howard Players in 1951. Roxie Roker is on the front row, third from the right. My Dad is standing on the row above her. Photo courtesy of The Howard University Archives.

Under the tutelage of Anne Cooke, who headed up Howard’s theater department, Roxie thrived. At a time when Black actresses and actors were largely confined to playing maids, mammies, and butlers, Cooke immersed her students in classical theater, preparing them for all types of roles. She even put the Howard Players in the international spotlight after they were invited to travel abroad.

Roxie was among the students chosen to perform with the ensemble in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Germany. Years later at the height of her career, she credited Professor Cooke for “insisting on world-class theater.”

Over thirty years after graduating from Howard, Dad would reconnect with Roxie. As a senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service, Dad made annual treks from our home in the Washington, DC area to Los Angeles, California for weather business. He’d always extend his stays to visit family and friends, and travel up the coast to play golf.

By this time, Dad and Roxie were both married. They were reacquainted by a mutual friend, television producer Sylvia O’Gilvie. During my father’s trips to Tinsel Town in the 1980s, Roxie and her then-husband Sy Kravitz, invited Dad to dinner parties at their home.

In truth, I’ll never know for sure if Lonnie had an actual crush on Roxie (she died in 1995 and my father passed in 1999), but his face sure did light up when he talked about her. My mother became the love of his life, but even she noticed his exuberance when he spoke of his former classmate.

He looked forward to his visits to LA and always spoke favorably of Roxie’s hospitality. And before Lenny Kravitz became Lenny Kravitz the delicious-looking rockstar, I knew of him as being Ms. Roker’s son who was “a musician and he’s never home,” according to what Dad told me.

Welp. Today, that musician works out in leather pants at the gym. Have mercy. More importantly, however, from what I hear, he’s a really good and genuine person. Just like his mom.

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