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Cokie Roberts, a broadcast journalist and political commentator who spoke publicly about her Catholic faith and admiration for the Sacred Heart sisters who taught her, died Sept. 17 due to complications from breast cancer. She was 75.
Mrs. Roberts, who died at home in Bethesda, Md., was an Emmy award-winning reporter, author and frequent keynote speaker at Catholic college graduations. She was described as “a true pioneer for women in journalism,” by James Goldston, president of ABC News, her longtime employer.
She was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame and was listed as one of the 50 greatest women in the history of broadcasting by the American Women in Radio and Television.
She started her radio career at CBS and in 1978 began working for NPR covering Capitol Hill, where she continued as a political commentator until her death. She joined ABC News in 1988 and during her three decades there, she was a political commentator, chief congressional analyst and co-anchor of the news program “This Week” from 1996 to 2002.
She was born in New Orleans with the full name Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne Boggs and was nicknamed “Cokie” by her brother.
Mrs. Roberts attended Catholic schools in New Orleans and Bethesda, run by the sisters of the Society of the Sacred Heart. She wrote eight books, including one with her husband, Steve Roberts, also a journalist, called “From This Day Forward” about their interfaith marriage. Steve is Jewish.
Her roots are both political and Catholic. She is the daughter of Hale Boggs, the former Democratic House majority leader and representative from New Orleans, who died in a plane crash in 1972. Her mother, Lindy, was elected to fill his seat and served nine terms. Lindy Boggs, who died in 2013, also served as U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.
In a 2014 interview with America magazine, Mrs. Roberts said: “There is no way to talk about my faith absent the Society of the Sacred Heart. The women who were my teachers and remain my dear friends mean the world to me. They took girls seriously in the 1950s—a radical notion...”
She is survived by her husband, children Lee and Rebecca, and six grandchildren.
Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Washington, D.C., offered the Funeral Mass Sept. 22 at St. Matthew Cathedral.—CNS
