Legendary political reporter and New Orleans native Cokie Roberts passed away from complications resulting from her breast cancer at the age of 75.
Born to the name Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne Bogs, Roberts shattered glass ceilings in her prolific career and was named one of the 50 greatest women in broadcasting history. In 2015 she spoke with Jim Engster about the ongoing struggle for women’s equality.
“It’s still true I’m sorry to say, but it was certainly true for most of our history,” said Roberts. “It was not until 1920 that women got the vote, and it was not until 1964 in the Civil Rights Act that women got anti-discrimination in hiring.”
Roberts got the name “Cokie” from her younger brother.
Roberts was quintessential New Orleans and may have lived in DC for work but loved to come back and visit her mother, former Congresswoman Lindy Boggs, at her Bourbon Street home.
“It was not your typical spot for one’s elderly mother to be living in,” said Roberts. “In fact when my children were small and we would walk past the strippers and the other neighbors I’d say through the woods and over the hills to grandmother’s house we go!”
Her father, Congressman Hale Boggs, was presumed dead in 1972 after his plane disappeared in the Alaskan wilds.
The correspondent was highly respected for her political coverage in radio, at PBS, CBS News, and ABC News. In early 2015 she told Engster she could feel an anti-establishment surge coming.
“The truth is American voters at the moment are distrustful of pretty much every institution. You can blame it on media, you can blame it on all kinds of things but that is where we are in the country right now,” said Roberts.
Roberts was named a “Living Legend” by the Library of Congress in 2008.
