Cokie Roberts

Cokie Roberts was born Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne Boggs in New Orleans, LA. She hailed from a politically inclined family; both parents, Hale and Lindy Boggs, served as Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives, while her sister Barbara Sigmund was elected mayor of Princeton, NJ, and her brother Tommy Boggs was a Washington D.C. lobbyist and attorney. Roberts herself inherited the family interest, studying political science at Wesleyan University, whence she graduated in 1964. In lieu life as a member of the American government, however, Roberts devoted herself to political journalism, starting out with jobs attached to the Washington D.C.-based network WRC-TV, Cowles Communications in New York City, and CBS TV, for whom she served as a freelance reporter from Athens, Greece, where she lived with her husband, fellow journalist Steven V. Roberts. Over time, Roberts moved on to more substantial work, serving as congressional correspondent for NPR starting in 1978, and working on television programs like "PBS NewsHour" (PBS 1975-), then known as "The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour," all the while. In 1988, Roberts' accepted a new full-time job as a political correspondent for "ABC World News Tonight" (ABC 1953-). Controversy found Roberts a year later, when she challenged the veracity of allegations of abuse waged by a Catholic nun against the Guatemalan government, with which her brother Tommy had a business partnership. Roberts won the Edward R. Murrow Award in 1990 for her contributions to public radio. Over the years to follow, Roberts worked further with NPR before becoming chief congressional analyst for ABC News and cohost of the network's morning show "This Week" (ABC 1981-). In 2002, Roberts was diagnosed with breast cancer. On Sept. 17. 2019, she died at age 75 following complications related to the disease.