Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne Roberts, known professionally as Cokie Roberts, was a renowned American journalist and bestselling author. Born on December 27, 1943, she was the daughter of Lindy Boggs, a Democratic Congresswoman from Louisiana, and Hale Boggs, a Democratic Congressman from Louisiana who was Majority Leader of the House of Representatives and a member of the Warren Commission.
Cokie's mother took her seat in Congress after Hale's disappearance in 1972, and Cokie was the couple's third child. She had two siblings, Barbara Boggs Sigmund, who was a mayor and a candidate for U.S. Senate, and Tommy Boggs, a prominent Washington, D.C. attorney and lobbyist.
Roberts began her career in journalism at NPR in 1978, where she worked as a congressional correspondent for over a decade. She was a contributor to PBS's The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour and won the Edward Weintal Prize for Diplomatic Reporting in 1988 for her coverage of the Iran-Contra Affair.
In 1988, Roberts joined ABC News as a political correspondent for World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, while continuing to work part-time as a political commentator at NPR. She later became a senior news analyst and commentator for NPR, appearing on Morning Edition to discuss the week in politics.
Roberts co-anchored ABC News's Sunday morning broadcast This Week with Sam Donaldson & Cokie Roberts from 1996 to 2002, while serving as the chief congressional analyst for ABC News. She covered politics, Congress, and public policy, reporting for World News Tonight and other ABC News broadcasts.
Throughout her career, Roberts won numerous awards, including the Edward R. Murrow Award, the Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for coverage of Congress, a 1991 Emmy Award, and the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism. She was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame and was cited as one of the fifty greatest women in the history of broadcasting by the American Women in Radio and Television.
In 2002, Roberts was diagnosed with breast cancer, but she underwent successful treatment. However, she passed away on September 17, 2019, due to complications from the disease in Washington, D.C.
