Cokie Roberts

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cokie Roberts
Born Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne Boggs
December 27, 1943
New Orleans, Louisiana
Residence Bethesda, Maryland
Nationality American
Alma mater Wellesley College
Occupation Journalist, Author, Historian
Employers NPR, ABC
Title Contributing Senior News Analyst
Known for Journalist and bestselling author
Religious beliefs Roman Catholic
Spouse Steven V. Roberts (1966-Present)
Children Rebecca Roberts
Lee Roberts
Parents Hale Boggs
Lindy Boggs
Relatives Barbara Boggs Sigmund (Sister)
Tommy Boggs (Brother)

Cokie Roberts (born December 27, 1943) is an American Emmy Award-winning journalist and bestselling author. She is a contributing senior news analyst for National Public Radio as well as a regular roundtable analyst for the current This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Roberts also works as political commentator for ABC News, serving as an on-air analyst for the network. Roberts, along with her husband, Steven V. Roberts, writes a weekly column syndicated by United Media in newspapers around the United States. She serves on the boards of several non-profit organizations and was appointed by President George W. Bush to his Council on Service and Civic Participation[1].

Contents

[edit] Background

Cokie Roberts, née Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne Boggs[2] on December 27, 1943 in New Orleans, Louisiana. She received the sobriquet Cokie from her brother Tommy, who could not pronounce Corinne[2]. Cokie Roberts is the third and youngest daughter of former ambassador and long-time Democratic Congressman from Louisiana Lindy Boggs and of the late Hale Boggs, also a Democratic Congressman from Louisiana who was Majority Leader of the House of Representatives. Her sister, the late Barbara Boggs Sigmund, was mayor of Princeton, New Jersey and a candidate for U.S. Senate from New Jersey. Her brother Tommy Boggs is a prominent Washington, D.C. attorney and lobbyist.

Roberts graduated from the Stone Ridge School outside Washington, D.C. in 1960[3] and then Wellesley College in 1964[4] where she received a BA in Political Science. She has been married to Steven V. Roberts, a professor and fellow journalist, since 1966, whom she met in the summer of 1962, when she was 18 and he was 19[5]. They both currently reside in Bethesda, Maryland. She and her husband have two children, and six grandchildren. Her daughter, Rebecca Roberts, also serves as an NPR correspondent and sometimes hosts Talk of the Nation and Weekend America.

[edit] Career

Cokie Roberts serves as a senior news analyst for NPR, where she was the congressional correspondent for more than ten years. In addition to her work for NPR, Roberts is a political commentator for ABC News, serving as an on-air analyst for the network. Roberts was the co-anchor of the ABC News' Sunday morning broadcast, This Week with Sam Donaldson & Cokie Roberts from 1996 to 2002, while also 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.

Before joining ABC News in 1988, Roberts was a contributor to PBS in the evening television news program The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. Her coverage of the Iran-Contra Affair for that program won her the Edward Weintal Prize for Diplomatic Reporting in 1988[6]. 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, DC. From 1981 to 1984, in addition to her work at NPR, she also co-hosted The Lawmakers, a weekly public television program on Congress. Roberts is also a former president of the Radio and Television Correspondent's Association.

She also co-hosted This Week with Sam Donaldson & Cokie Roberts from 1996 to 2002 (and continues to appear on the "Round Table" segments from time to time). Roberts has won numerous awards, such as the Edward R. Murrow Award[7], the Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for coverage of Congress[8] and a 1991 Emmy Award for her contribution to "Who is Ross Perot?"[9]

[edit] Author

She is the author of the national bestseller We Are Our Mother's Daughters as well as Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation. The book, published in 2004, explores the lives of the women behind the men that wrote the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence. Her latest book, Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation, continues the story of early America's influential women that helped shape the United States during its early stages, and chronicling their various public roles and private responsibilities.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] External sources

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ President's Council on Service and Civic Participation. Meet the Council Members. USA Freedom Corps. www.whitehouse.gov. Retrieved on 2008-04-10.
  2. ^ a b Roberts, Cokie. Talk Show with Charlie Rose. Charlie Rose (talk show). PBS. 1993-03-08. (Interview [Video]). Retrieved on 2008-05-20.
  3. ^ Stone Ridge School. Alumnae Exellence. Retrieved on 2008-04-11. “Cokie Boggs Roberts '60”
  4. ^ Wellesley College. Notable Wellesley College Alumnae. Retrieved on 2008-04-10.
  5. ^ Roberts, Cokie & Steven Roberts. Talk Show with Charlie Rose. A conversation with Cokie & Steve Roberts (Video). Charlie Rose (talk show). PBS. 2000-02-28. Retrieved on 2008-05-20.
  6. ^ Krogh, Peter F. (1995-04-25). ISD Report (PDF). Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service 4. Georgetown University. Retrieved on 2008-04-11.
  7. ^ Recipients of the Edward R. Murrow Award. Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Retrieved on 2008-04-11.
  8. ^ Everett McKinley Dirksen Awards for Distinguished Reporting of Congress. National Press Foundation. Retrieved on 2008-04-11.
  9. ^ NPR. Cokie Roberts, NPR Biography. Retrieved on 2008-04-11.
Preceded by
David Brinkley		 This Week co-anchor with Sam Donaldson
1996 – 2002		 Succeeded by
George Stephanopoulos