The mother of boxing’s last undisputed world heavyweight champions passed away on Thursday aged 85
Violet Blake (known to the world as Lennox Lewis’s mum) died on Thursday 30 November at age 85. Lennox announced her death on social media, describing the loss as “an indescribable type of hurt that has me reeling, yet also has me comforted to know she is now in a better place with no more suffering”.
Violet Lewis (her maiden name) was born in Jamaica on 10 May 1938. Her father was a laborer. Her mother worked as a household domestic. Violet was one of twelve children. When she was young, she lived with her Aunt Gee. Then Gee married and Violet was sent to live with another aunt. “I can’t recall ever living at home with my brothers and sisters,” she told Lennox’s biographer, Ken Gorman, in 1992. “I hardly knew my mum and dad.”