Cokie Roberts life and biography

Journalist and author Cokie Roberts is a senior news analyst for National Public Radio, where she has served as congressional correspondent of more than 10 years.

Roberts was born Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne Boggs on December 27, 1943, in New Orleans, LA, to parents Hale and Lindy Boggs. Her father was Majority Leader of the House, and her mother became a member of Congress after his death. Having graduated with a degree in political science from Wellesley College in 1964, Roberts received a 1985 Distinguished Alumnae Achievement Award in recognition of "excellence and distinction in professional pursuits." She is the recipient of 14 honorary degrees. Roberts serves on the boards of several non-profit institutions and was appointed to the President's Commission on Service and Civic Participation. She has two children.

The one-time chief congressional analyst for ABC NEWS, she served as co-anchor of the ABC NEWS Sunday morning broadcast, This Week With Sam Donaldson & Cokie Roberts from 1996-2002. She covered politics, Congress and public policy for ABC NEWS, reporting for World News Tonight and other ABC NEWS broadcasts. The recipient of numerous awards, including public radio's highest honor, the Edward R. Murrow Award, Roberts was also the first broadcast journalist to win the Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for coverage of Congress. In 1991, Roberts won an Emmy for her contribution to the ABCN EWS special, Who Is Ross Perot? Inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame, Roberts was cited by the American Women in Radio and Television as one of the fifty greatest women in the history of broadcasting.

Along with her husband, Steven V. Roberts, a professor at George Washington University and contributing editor at U.S. News & World Report, Roberts writes a weekly column syndicated by United Media in major newspapers around the country. Her op-ed columns have appeared in The New York Times and The Washington Post; she has also written for The New York Times Magazine and The Atlantic. In February 2000, Cokie and Steve Roberts published From This Day Forward, an account of their more than 30-year marriage, as well as other marriages in American history. It immediately hit the top 10 on the New York Times best-seller list. Roberts' other number one bestseller, We Are Our Mothers' Daughters, is the story of women's roles and relationships throughout American history. Roberts has also published Founding Mothers, the stories of the women who helped raise the nation, and Ladies of Liberty, stories of women who helped to shape the nation.

Before joining ABC NEWS in 1988, Roberts was a contributor to PBS-TV's MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour. Prior to joining NPR, Roberts was a reporter for CBS News in Athens, Greece. She also produced and hosted a public affairs program on WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. From 1981 to 1984, in addition to her work at NPR, she co-hosted The Lawmakers, a weekly public television program on Congress. Roberts is former president of the Radio and Television Correspondent's Association.

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