Cokie Roberts, the daughter of politicians and a pioneering journalist who chronicled Washington from Jimmy Carter to Donald Trump for NPR and ABC News, died Tuesday of complications from breast cancer. She was 75. ABC broke into network programming to announce her death and politicians including former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama offered sympathy. Roberts devoted most of her attention to covering Congress, where her father Hale Boggs was a House majority leader who died in 1972 when his plane went missing over Alaska. Her mother, Lindy Boggs, took over his Louisiana congressional seat and served until 1990, later becoming ambassador to the Vatican.
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‘Transformed role of women in newsroom’

Roberts co-anchored the ABC Sunday political show “This Week” with Sam Donaldson from 1996 to 2002. She was most proud professionally of a series of books about women in Washington. “We Are Our Mother’s Daughters” was about the changing roles and relationships of women. She also wrote two books with her husband, Steven Roberts, about marriage and an interfaith family. “Cokie Roberts was a trailblazer who forever transformed the role of women in the newsroom and in our history books,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. “Over five decades of celebrated journalism, Cokie shone a powerful light on the unsung women who built our nation, but whose stories had long gone untold.”
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Roberts, who earned her nickname because her brother couldn’t pronounce “Corinne,” grew up primarily in Bethesda, Maryland. She attended Wellesley College and met her future husband at a conference for student leaders. “Journalism just kind of happened to me,” she said in a 2018 interview with the Television Academy. “It wasn’t anything I had planned to do.” But she got her start at a newsletter, worked in local news and filed stories for CBS News from Greece when her husband was stationed there as a correspondent. She was bitten by the bug.
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Trump, Obama pay tribute

Obama said Roberts was a role model for women at a time the journalism profession was still dominated by men and was a constant over 40 years of a shifting media landscape and changing world. His predecessor, former President George W. Bush, and his wife, Laura, called Roberts a talented, tough and fair reporter. “We respected her drive and appreciated her humor,” the former president said. “She became a friend.” While staying at NPR, she started working at PBS on “NewsHour” and in 1988 joined ABC News. She may be the only reporter to file stories for “Morning Edition,” ″All Things Considered,” ″World News Tonight” and “Nightline” in a single day, said James Goldston, ABC News president. After leaving as “This Week” host, she settled into a role as an analyst and commentator at both news organizations. She co-wrote a syndicated column with her husband, which got her into some hot water with NPR in 2016 when they called for “the rational wing” of the Republican Party to reject Trump as their presidential candidate. “I never met her,” Trump told reporters Tuesday. “She never treated me nicely. But I would like to wish her family well. She was a professional and I respect professionals.” Roberts lamented in her television academy interview how the 24-hour news cycle meant journalists are under constant pressure to file stories and had less time to report. The only answer is to hire more reporters, and she didn’t expect that to happen. Despite her lifetime around politics, colleagues say she never became consumed by cynicism. She wanted the government to work. She was married to Steven Roberts for 53 years and they had two children, Lee and Rebecca, and six grandchildren.
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