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 Roberts worked in radio as a foreign correspondent for CBS and a
congressional correspondent for NPR in the 1970s. She went on to
become ABC's chief congressional analyst.
NPR President Jarl Mohn called the Emmy Award winner one of
NPR's "founding mothers" in a statement, describing her as "the
trusted voice that Americans count on when political news
breaks."
She was born Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne Boggs on
Dec. 27, 1943, to a prominent political family in Louisiana. She
got her nickname Cokie from her brother, who struggled to
pronounce "Corinne" when they were children.
Her father, Hale Boggs, was a major force in New Orleans
Democratic politics who served in the U.S. House of
Representatives for 25 years and became majority leader in the
early 1970s when his party ran the chamber. After his plane
disappeared over Alaska in October 1972, her mother, Lindy
Boggs, was elected to his seat and served through the end of
1990.
Roberts rose to prominence at a time when broadcast news and
political analysis were mostly presented by men. Along with NPR
colleagues Nina Totenberg, Linda Wertheimer and Susan Stamberg,
she helped shape the sound and culture of the public
broadcaster.
Two of Roberts' journalistic subjects, former U.S. President
George W. Bush and his wife, Laura Bush, noted her drive and
humor in a joint statement.
"She covered us for decades as a talented, tough, and fair
reporter," their statement said. "She became a friend."
'LIVING LEGEND'
She and her husband, the journalist Steven Roberts, collaborated
on a syndicated column that ran in newspapers across the
country.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, they wrote a column
calling on the "rational wing" of the Republican Party to stop
then-candidate Donald Trump from becoming its nominee for
president.
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"She never treated me nicely," Trump told reporters on Tuesday
aboard Air Force One. "But I would like to wish her family well.
She was a professional and I respect professionals."
Roberts won numerous awards for her work, including three Emmys,
U.S. television's top award. In 2008, the Library of Congress
recognized her as a "Living Legend."
Roberts wrote several books about overlooked women in American
political history, including "Founding Mothers," about the wives
and other female relatives of the men who helped create the
American republic. Her last book, published in 2015, was
"Capital Dames: the Civil War and the Women of Washington,
1848-1868."
She often spoke of women as playing a civilizing role in
society.
"I don't just see this role of women as caretakers in the world
that I cover, I see it in the world I live in," she said in her
commencement speech at Wellesley College, her alma mater, in
1994. "Slowly, slowly, slowly but definitely, the workplace is
becoming a more humane place because of the presence of women."
She is survived by her husband of 53 years and by two children
and six grandchildren, her family said in a statement.
(Reporting by Peter Szekely and Jonathan Allen in New York;
Additional reporting by Jeff Mason on Air Force One and Alex
Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Peter
Cooney)
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