Remembering Cokie Roberts
• Pioneering journalist Cokie Roberts, known as one of the “Founding Mothers” of NPR before later going to a successful career with ABC News, died Tuesday at the age 75, due to complications from breast cancer.
Born in New Orleans as Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne Boggs, she was given the nickname “Cokie” by her brother, Thomas, who had trouble pronouncing Corinne. Roberts’ first media job was as host of a public affairs program called Meeting of Minds at WRC-TV/Washington. She married journalist Steven Roberts in 1966, and in the early ’70s, after holding a number of other broadcast jobs, Roberts and her husband moved to Athens, Greece, where he worked for The New York Times and she filed radio stories as a freelance correspondent for CBS.
In 1977, Roberts and her family returned to DC, where she took a job with a fledgling NPR, going on to serve as NPR’s congressional correspondent for more than 10 years. While in that role, she was also a contributor to PBS’s The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. Roberts left her fulltime position at NPR in 1988 to become a political correspondent for ABC’s World News Tonight with Peter Jennings. She was also a regular fill-in anchor for Ted Koppel on Nightline. From 1992 to 2002, Roberts co-anchored ABC News’ Sunday morning show This Week alongside Sam Donaldson.
Roberts went on to author six books and won numerous awards during her long career in journalism, including three Emmys and the Edward R. Murrow award. She was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame and recognized by the American Women in Radio and Television as one of the 50 Greatest Women in the history of broadcasting. In a nod to her radio roots, Roberts also maintained a part-time role as an NPR political commentator until her death.
Roberts is survived by her husband of 53 years; her two children, Lee Roberts and Rebecca Roberts; and six grandchildren.
• Benztown has posted an audio tribute to Cokie Roberts, produced by Tom Baker and written and voiced by Bill Royal.
