Cokie Roberts

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Lore & Background

Roberts was born in New Orleans to Lindy Boggs and Hale Boggs, each of whom served for decades as Democratic members of the House of Representatives from Louisiana; Lindy succeeded Hale after his plane disappeared over Alaska in 1972. She received the nickname Cokie from her brother Tommy, who as a child could not pronounce her given name, Corinne. She attended the Academy of the Sacred Heart, an all-girls Roman Catholic high school in New Orleans, and graduated from the Stone Ridge School, an all-girls school outside Washington, D.C., in 1960. She graduated from Wellesley College in 1964 with a Bachelor of Arts in political science. Her first job in journalism was at WRC-TV in Washington, D.C., as host of its weekly public affairs program Meeting of the Minds. After moving with her husband Steve to New York City, she found work in 1967 as a reporter for Cowles Communications. She worked briefly as a producer for WNEW-TV before relocating to Los Angeles, where she worked for Altman Productions and then for KNBC-TV as producer of the children's program Serendipity, which won a 1971 Los Angeles Area Emmy Award. She also moved with her husband to Greece, where she was a stringer for CBS News in Athens. She began working for NPR in 1978 as congressional correspondent for more than 10 years. From 1981 to 1984, she cohosted The Lawmakers, a weekly public television program on Congress. Starting in 1992, she served as a senior news analyst and commentator for NPR, primarily on Morning Edition. She went to work for ABC News in 1988 as a political correspondent for World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, continuing part-time as a political commentator at NPR. She appeared as a panelist for many years on This Week with David Brinkley, and co-anchored the program with Sam Donaldson from 1996 to 2002.

Reader's Guide

Cokie Roberts's significance lies in her pioneering role as a female journalist in Washington, D.C., political journalism, which The New York Times credited her, along with Linda Wertheimer and Nina Totenberg, with transforming from a male-dominated field. She was considered one of NPR's "founding mothers" due to her early involvement at the network when women were not often involved in journalism at the highest levels. Her coverage of the Iran–Contra Affair for The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour won the Edward Weintal Prize for Diplomatic Reporting in 1988. She also won the Edward R. Murrow Award, the Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for coverage of Congress, and a 1991 Emmy Award for her contribution to Who Is Ross Perot? In 2000, she won the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism. Her legacy includes her books exploring the lives of women in American history, such as Founding Mothers and Ladies of Liberty, and her weekly syndicated column with her husband Steve. She served on the boards of several non-profit organizations such as the Kaiser Family Foundation and was appointed by President George W. Bush to his Council on Service and Civic Participation.

Did You Know?

• Roberts received the nickname Cokie from her brother Tommy, who as a child could not pronounce her given name, Corinne.
• Her mother Lindy Boggs succeeded her father Hale Boggs in the House of Representatives after his plane disappeared over Alaska in 1972.
• She produced the children's program Serendipity, which won a 1971 Los Angeles Area Emmy Award.
• Roberts co-anchored This Week with Sam Donaldson from 1996 to 2002, after David Brinkley's retirement.
• In 2002, she was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer, was successfully treated at the time, but died from complications of the disease in 2019.