Mary Roberts (née Boggs; December 27, 1943 – September 17, 2019), known as Cokie Roberts, was an American journalist and bestselling author. Her career included decades as a political reporter and analyst for National Public Radio and ABC News, with prominent positions on Morning Edition, The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, World News Tonight, and This Week. Roberts, along with her husband, Steven V. Roberts, wrote a weekly column syndicated by United Media in newspapers around the United States. 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.Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne Boggs was born on December 27, 1943, in New Orleans, Louisiana. She received the nickname "Cokie" from her brother Tommy, who, as a child, could not pronounce her given name, Corinne. Her parents were Lindy Boggs and Hale Boggs, each of whom would serve for decades as Democratic members of the House of Representatives from Louisiana; Lindy succeeded Hale after his plane disappeared over Alaska in 1972.[6] Cokie was the couple's third child. Her sister, Barbara Boggs Sigmund, would become mayor of Princeton, New Jersey, and a candidate for the Senate. Her brother Tommy Boggs would become a prominent Washington, D.C., attorney and lobbyist.
Roberts attended the Academy of the Sacred Heart, an all-girls school in New Orleans, before graduating from the Stone Ridge School, an all-girls school outside Washington, D.C., in 1960.[8] She graduated from Wellesley College in 1964, where she received a BA in Political Science. Her first job in journalism was at WRC-TV in Washington, DC, where she was host of its weekly public affairs program Meeting of the Minds. After moving with her husband to New York City, she found work in 1967 as a reporter for Cowles Communications.[10] She worked briefly as a producer for WNEW-TV before her husband's career relocated them to Los Angeles, where she worked for Altman Productions, then for KNBC-TV as producer of the children's program Seredipity. She moved with her husband to Greece, where she was a stringer for CBS News in Athens.
