Cokie Roberts | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Roberts in 1998 | |
| Born | Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne Boggs (1943-12-27)December 27, 1943 New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Died | September 17, 2019(2019-09-17) (aged 75) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Resting place | Congressional Cemetery |
| Alma mater | Wellesley College (BA) |
| Occupation(s) | Journalist, author |
| Employer(s) | NPR,ABC,PBS |
| Known for | Journalist, author, pundit, television |
| Title | Contributing Senior News Analyst |
| Political party | Democratic Party (United States)§ |
| Spouse | |
| Children | Lee Roberts Rebecca Roberts |
| Parent(s) | Hale Boggs Lindy Boggs |
| Relatives | Barbara Boggs Sigmund (sister) Tommy Boggs (brother) |
Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne "Cokie"Roberts (néeBoggs;[1] December 27, 1943 – September 17, 2019) was an American journalist and author.[2] Her career included decades as a political reporter and analyst forNational Public Radio,PBS, andABC News, with prominent positions onMorning Edition,The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour,World News Tonight, andThis Week. She was considered one of NPR's "Founding Mothers"[3][4] along withSusan Stamberg,Linda Wertheimer andNina Totenberg.
Roberts, along with her husband,Steve, wrote a weekly column syndicated byUnited Media in newspapers around the United States. She served on the boards of several non-profit organizations such as theKaiser Family Foundation[5] and was appointed by PresidentGeorge W. Bush to hisCouncil on Service and Civic Participation.[6]
Roberts was born inNew Orleans.[7] She received the nickname Cokie from her brother,Tommy, who as a child could not pronounce her given name, Corinne.[8]
Her parents wereLindy Boggs andHale Boggs, each of whom served for decades as Democratic members of theHouse of Representatives from Louisiana; Lindy succeeded Hale after his plane disappeared over Alaska in 1972.[9] Cokie was their third child. Her sisterBarbara became mayor ofPrinceton, New Jersey and a candidate for the United States Senate. Her brother Tommy became a prominent attorney and lobbyist in Washington, D.C.[10]
She attended theAcademy of the Sacred Heart, an all-girlsRoman Catholic high school in New Orleans, and graduated from theStone Ridge School, an all-girls school outside Washington, D.C., in 1960.[11] She graduated fromWellesley College in 1964, where she received a Bachelor of Arts inpolitical science.[12]
Roberts' first job in journalism was atWRC-TV in Washington, D.C., where she was host of its weekly public affairs programMeeting of the Minds.[13][14] After moving with her husband Steve, also a journalist, to New York City, she found work in 1967 as a reporter forCowles Communications.[13] She worked briefly as a producer forWNEW-TV before Steve's career had them relocating to Los Angeles. She worked for Altman Productions and then forKNBC-TV as producer of the children's programSerendipity, which won a 1971 Los Angeles Area Emmy Award.[13] She also moved with her husband to Greece, where she was astringer forCBS News in Athens.[13]
Roberts began working for National Public Radio (NPR) in 1978, working as the congressional correspondent for more than 10 years.[15] Because of her early involvement as a female journalist in the network at a time when women were not often involved in journalism at the highest levels, she has been called one of the "founding mothers of NPR."[16] Roberts was a contributor to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) on the evening television news programThe MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. Her coverage of theIran-Contra Affair for that program won her the Edward Weintal Prize for Diplomatic Reporting in 1988.[17] From 1981 to 1984, in addition to her work at NPR, she also cohostedThe Lawmakers, a weekly public television program on Congress.[18] Starting in 1992, Roberts served as a senior news analyst and commentator for NPR, primarily on the daily news programMorning Edition.[19] In 1994,The New York Times credited her, along with NPR'sLinda Wertheimer andNina Totenberg, with transforming male-dominated Washington, D.C., political journalism.[20]
Roberts went to work forABC News in 1988 as a political correspondent for ABC'sWorld News Tonight withPeter Jennings, continuing to serve part-time as a political commentator at NPR.[15]She appeared as a panelist for many years on ABC News' Sunday morning broadcastThis Week with David Brinkley. AfterBrinkley's retirement, she co-anchored the program withSam Donaldson (renamedThis Week with Sam Donaldson & Cokie Roberts) from 1996 to 2002, while serving as the chief congressional analyst for ABC News.[21] The two were replaced as anchors in September 2002 byGeorge Stephanopoulos. She also covered politics, Congress, and public policy while reporting forWorld News Tonight and other ABC News broadcasts.[22] Roberts continued to serve occasionally as a panelist onThis Week and work on NPR. Her final assignment with NPR was a series of segments onMorning Edition titled "Ask Cokie," in which she answered questions submitted by listeners about subjects usually related to U.S. politics.[23]
In 1989, SisterDianna Ortiz, a Catholic sister from New Mexico, was abducted, raped, and tortured while working in Guatemala by members of a Guatemalan government-backeddeath squad. Her abductors believed Ortiz was a subversive.[24] During a subsequent interview, Roberts contested Ortiz's claim that an American was among her captors. (The United States provided significant military aid to Guatemala at the time.) Roberts implied that Ortiz was lying about the entire episode, although Ortiz later won a lawsuit against a Guatemalan general she accused in the case.[25] It was later revealed thatPatton Boggs, the law firm of Roberts' brother Tommy, was paid by the Guatemalan government to promote a more positive image of the regime, which was widely criticized internationally for human rights abuses.[26][27][28]
Roberts won theEdward R. Murrow Award,[29] theEverett McKinley Dirksen Award for coverage of Congress,[30] and a 1991Emmy Award for her contribution toWho IsRoss Perot?[31] In 1997, she received the Golden Plate Award of theAmerican Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council memberSam Donaldson.[32] In 2000, she won theWalter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism.[33]
Roberts and her mother, Lindy Boggs, won the Foremother Award from theNational Center for Health Research in 2013.[34]
She was made an honoris causa initiate ofOmicron Delta Kappa in 1995 from theUniversity of Akron and later received the organization's highest honor, the Laurel Crowned Circle. Roberts was also inducted into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame in 2000.[35][36] She was also cited as one of the 50 greatest women in the history of broadcasting by theAmerican Women in Radio and Television.[31]
Roberts was a president of theRadio and Television Correspondents' Association.[14]
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Funeral Mass for Cokie Roberts, September 21, 2019,C-SPAN |
From 1966 until her death, Roberts was married to Steven V. Roberts, a professor and fellow journalist. They met in summer 1962, when she was 18 and he was 19.[37] They resided inBethesda, Maryland.[38] They had two children: a son,Lee, and a daughter,Rebecca. Roberts was aRoman Catholic.[39]
In 2002, Roberts was diagnosed withmetastatic breast cancer. She was successfully treated at the time[40] but died from complications of the disease in Washington, D.C., on September 17, 2019.[21]
Cokie Boggs Roberts '60
| Media offices | ||
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| Preceded by | This Week co-anchor withSam Donaldson December 15, 1996 – September 8, 2002 | Succeeded by |
