Journalist Cokie Roberts dies at 75
Cokie Roberts, the pioneering journalist whose storied career included high-profile stints with NPR and ABC News, died Tuesday from complications of breast cancer, her family announced. She was 75.
The three-time Emmy winner, a member of the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame, launched her career as a freelance foreign correspondent for CBS Radio in the 1970s before joining National Public Radio in 1978. After moving to ABC, she co-hosted “This Week” with Sam Donaldson from 1996 to 2002, and served as a political commentator, chief congressional analyst and commentator.
“Cokie Roberts was a trailblazer who transformed the role of women in the newsroom & our history books as she told the stories of the unsung women who built our nation,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted.
A bipartisan pair of former presidents chimed in as well with praise for Roberts’ years of hard work in Washington under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
“She will be missed, and we send our condolences to her family,” said Barack Obama, noting her longevity during a four-decade stretch in which the media landscape was constantly shifting. George W. Bush and wife Laura recalled Roberts as a talented, tough and fair reporter.
NPR news chief Nancy Barnes, in a note to the staff, honored Roberts for both the quality of her work and the way she broke down barriers while doing it. She recalled a lunch with Roberts, Nina Totenberg and Linda Wertheimer where the three shared stories of trying to find their way into the business when opportunities for women were few and the pay lower than their male colleagues.
“I was reminded then, as I am today, how much we all owe to Cokie and other pioneering women journalists,” wrote Barnes.
When Roberts (photo inset) came to NPR in 1977, the news organization was barely known. She helped put the outlet on the national media radar, serving as congressional correspondent and contributing to “The MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour” on PBS.
Roberts moved to ABC in 1988 to become a political correspondent with “World News Tonight,” and became a regular fill-in for host Ted Koppel on “Nightline.”
She was also the author of a half-dozen books, with her latest — “Capital Dames: The Civil War and the Women of Washington, 1848-1868” — detailing the roles of prominent women in our nation’s capital across those two decades.
Roberts was the daughter of Hale Boggs, the former House majority leader from Louisiana, and Lindy Boggs, who succeeded her husband in Congress.
Roberts instead opted to cover the family business from the outside looking in, working in Washington as a reporter.
Roberts won multiple awards during her career, including her selection as a “Living Legend” by the Library of Congress.
ABC News President James Goldston remarked that her “kindness, generosity, sharp intellect and thoughtful take on the big issues of the day made ABC a better place and all of us better journalists.”
Roberts was born as Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne Boggs on Dec. 27, 1943, in New Orleans. She became Cokie when her brother Thomas had trouble pronouncing “Corinne.”
Her dad served in Congress for more than 30 years before his plane disappeared in bad weather on a campaign flight to Alaska. Despite a 39-day search, none of the wreckage nor the victims were ever located. Her mother, Lindy Boggs, replaced him in the House and served 17 years, later stepping into the post of U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.
Roberts is survived by her husband of 53 years, journalist Steven Roberts, her two children and six grandchildren.