Emmy-winning journalist and political commentator
WASHINGTON — Cokie Roberts, a daughter of politicians who went on to become a prominent journalist and political commentator, winning three Emmy Awards during a long career, died Tuesday in Washington of complications from breast cancer. She was 75.
ABC News broke into network programming to announce her death and pay tribute.
Roberts was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame and named a “living legend” by the Library of Congress in 2008. A rare woman in the newsroom when she began her career in the mid-1960s, she worked at CBS News, NPR and PBS before joining ABC News in 1988.
A veteran congressional reporter and consummate Washington insider, she coanchored the Sunday political show “This Week” with Sam Donaldson from 1996 to 2002, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She also wrote eight books and penned a political column.
Former President Barack Obama said Roberts was a role model for women at a time the journalism profession was still dominated by men, and was a constant over 40 years of a shifting media landscape and changing world.
“She will be missed, and we send our condolences to her family,” Obama said.
Former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, called Roberts a talented, tough and fair reporter.
“We respected her drive and appreciated her humor,” the former president said. “She became a friend.”
In part, her Washington expertise was a result of her upbringing — her father, known as Hale Boggs, was Democratic majority leader in the U.S. House, and her mother, Lindy Boggs, launched her own congressional career after he died in a 1972 plane crash.
She was born Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne Boggs on Dec. 27, 1943, and said her brother Tommy nicknamed her Cokie because he couldn’t pronounce Corinne.
Roberts received a bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College in political science in 1964.
She covered Capitol Hill for the fledgling radio broadcaster NPR beginning in the late 1970s.
Roberts married journalist Steven Roberts in 1966. In addition to her husband, of Bethesda, Maryland, survivors include two children and six grandchildren.
The Associated Press contributed.