Cokie Roberts exemplifies the word “versatile.” For more than 40 years, she has been an award-winning broadcast journalist; she is also a columnist, a historian, and the author of six New York Times best-sellers.
In 2008, the Library of Congress gave Cokie Roberts a “Living Legend” award, and with good reason. During a career spanning four decades, she has earned a reputation as a knowledgeable broadcast journalist who is always fair to the facts. She holds more than 30 honorary degrees, and has won numerous other honors including an Edward R. Murrow and three Emmys, as well as the Ken Burns Lifetime Achievement Award; and in 2000, she was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame. Cokie has worked on both radio and TV, as a reporter and political analyst, and in a profession long dominated by men, she has become one of broadcasting’s most admired women.
Born in New Orleans in 1943, her full name was Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne Boggs (“Cokie” is a childhood nickname she acquired when her brother couldn’t pronounce “Corinne”). Cokie was raised in a distinguished political family—her father was Hale Boggs, a long-time Democratic member of Congress who rose to Majority Leader of the House of Representatives. Thanks to him, she met many famous political figures. But in 1972, while her father was fundraising for a fellow Democratic candidate in Alaska, his small plane went down; the wreckage was never found, and he was presumed dead. Her mother Lindy won a special election for his seat in 1973, and began her own successful political career. She was re-elected seven times.
But Cokie did not want to enter politics. Although she graduated from Wellesley College in 1964 with a degree in Political Science, she hoped for a career in journalism. She was hired by WRC-TV in Washington D.C. to host a panel discussion program called “Meeting of the Minds.” Then, in 1966, she married print journalist Steven V. Roberts, and moved with him to New York, where he had been hired by the New York Times. At that time in her life, she focused on going wherever her husband’s career took him, which first meant Los Angeles, and later Athens, Greece. While raising their two children, she also did some free-lance journalism, including working for CBS News as a correspondent. But it wasn’t until she and her husband returned to the United States that she thought about returning to full-time reporting.
In 1978, Linda Wertheimer, a friend of hers from Wellesley College who was a political correspondent at National Public Radio (NPR), told her about an opening. Cokie was also encouraged to apply by another NPR correspondent, Nina Totenberg. At that time, NPR was one of the few networks that welcomed women reporters and put them in prominent roles. After Cokie was hired, it wasn’t long before she was covering Congress, as well as reporting on presidential elections. She soon became the Capitol Hill correspondent on NPR’s highly-rated news program “All Things Considered.” As her reputation for skillful reporting grew, she was given even more opportunities, including a role on TV. In 1981, she and Linda Wertheimer became the first NPR correspondents to join a PBS program, “The Lawmakers," which focused on what was happening in Congress. And success followed success. By 1987, Cokie was appearing regularly on what was then called the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour” on PBS. Her opinions on politics were widely sought, which led to her becoming an ABC News correspondent in 1988, first appearing on “This Week with David Brinkley.” After Brinkley retired, Cokie and Sam Donaldson co-anchored the show, from 1996–2002; she also continued to serve as a political analyst for NPR.
And somehow, Cokie found the time to write numerous non-fiction books. Long fascinated with history, she wrote “We Are Our Mother’s Daughters” (1998), “Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation” (2004), “Ladies of Liberty” (2008), and “Capital Dames: The Civil War and the Women of Washington” (2015), just to name a few. She and her husband of 50 years also collaborated on a book about marriage, “From This Day Forward” (2000), and a Passover haggadah for interfaith families, “Our Haggadah” (2011).
To this day, Cokie continues to be a tireless public speaker and an insightful political commentator. She is also a philanthropist, serving on the boards on numerous non-profit organizations, including the Mayo Clinic and Save the Children. To her peers, she remains one of the most credible reporters on the air. And to young women entering journalism, she remains a role model. It is no exaggeration to say that Cokie Roberts is indeed a “Living Legend.”