Cokie Roberts Remembers Her Mother, Former Congresswoman and Vatican Ambassador Lindy Boggs

By Chris Ariens 

Former Rep. Lindy Boggs, the mother of ABC’s Cokie Roberts, died today at her home in Chevy Chase, MD. She was 97. Boggs, who served nearly 18 years in Congress after succeeding her late husband, also served as ambassador to the Vatican from 1997-2001.

Roberts’ parents, who had met in college, were “political partners for decades,” says Roberts. Lindy Boggs ran the political campaigns of her husband, Thomas Hale Boggs Sr. She then won his seat in 1973 after he died in a plane crash in Alaska.

Boggs, who was born on a plantation near New Orleans, announced her retirement from Congress in 1990. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, her home on Bourbon Street was damaged, as was the Lindy Boggs Medical Center, which was named in her honor a year earlier.

Advertisement

Roberts calls her mother “a trailblazer for women and the disadvantaged.”

Advertisement