Kimora Lee Simmons Biography Simmons was born in St. Louis, Missouri and is of Asian and African American descent. Although her mother, Joanne Perkins, was born in Korea, she is Japanese.[6] Perkins was adopted by an American serviceman during the Korean War and she now goes by her own mother's Japanese name, Kyoko. Her father, Vernon Whitlock Jr., is African American. He has worked as a Federa... more.