Cokie Roberts RIP

wallycat

Stupid cancer. She was dx in 2002 at age 58 with breast cancer. RIP. 75 years old.

Meow13

Just saw that too. Now, Mary Nam of komotv had mastectomy to remove 5 small ILC tumors she is 41.

Hopeful82014

This is a painful loss, as was the death of Gwen Ifill in the fall of 2016. Ms Roberts was a towering figure who brought an extraordinary background, great intelligence and deeply informed insight to her reporting and analysis. The world was far bettered by her presence and immeasurably diminished by her passing. RIP great woman, and deepest condolences to her family and friends.

I hate cancer.

ceanna

Just coming here to see if anyone had posted her passing. Thanks wallycat for starting the tribute. Here's an ABC link about her life and reporting. https://abcnews.go.com/US/legendary-journalist-political-commentator-cokie-roberts-dies-75/story?id=65633507 We will miss her presence on air and steady hand at the news desk.

Beesie

I can't say it any better than Hopeful82014.

My condolences to Cokie Robert's family, friends and colleagues.

ksusan

I was very sad to hear this on NPR today.

ceanna

ABC News did a nice piece on Cokie tonight. I hope they expand it on Nightline tonight or run a special.

exbrnxgrl

She was one of my favorites! Just thinking of her voice makes me smile. May her memory be a blessing to her family and all who loved her

SUPer52

I am also saddened to hear of her passing. I have always respected her as a journalist, and I have two of her books: From This Day Forward which she co-wrote with her husband, and We Are Our Mothers' Daughters. I pulled We Are Our Mothers' Daughters off my shelf tonight and skimmed through it, stopping to re-read the chapter titled "Sister." I had forgotten that she had had an older sister who also had passed away from breast cancer. In the chapter about her sister's illness, she tells of when they both, in their separate cities, went for their annual mammograms in 1989 on the same day (unbeknownst to each other) and her sister, who had just turned 50 at the time, was immediately sent for follow up imaging which led to the news that she had cancer "everywhere." (Her sister had also received another cancer diagnosis seven years earlier: a melanoma behind her left eye which resulted in her having the eye removed.) She recounts the difficulty they had in telling their mother the news of her sister's metastatic breast cancer, the appreciation she had for the women members of her sister's cancer team who were open and honest about the diagnosis, and the supportive roles so many other women, "circles upon circles of sisters," played throughout her sister's illness. Interestingly, she states, about a female doctor who was so honest, "It's not that the male doctors weren't caring; it's just that they couldn't deal with what they saw as their own failure, their inability to lick the disease." She also noted that perhaps her sister's earlier diagnosis of melanoma should have been a warning, but they were assured the chance of the melanoma behind the eye recurring was less than if she had never had cancer at all. The book is copyrighted 1998, so it would have been written only a few years before Cokie herself was diagnosed. Proof yet again, that cancer doesn't discriminate, as we all know all too well. Sad day.

ItsHandled444

SUPer52 Thank you for sharing! My heart always sinks when I hear news like this, It makes me stop and say wait, why, what happened? It dosen't make it easier to process but helpful to hear the details. Condolences to Cokie Robert's family, friends and colleagues.
Hugs!

aterry

Thank you, SUPer52. I listened to Cokie Roberts so many times I can easily summon up her voice in my head. The pieces I read said she died of "complications of breast cancer treatment." I hope it's not rude of me to wonder what that meant, in her case. I know, in general, what it means; having treatment leads to higher risks for a variety of ailments.

BevJen

The news outlets are reporting today that Cokie Roberts' husband has just published a book about her. This morning, on Good Morning American, Robin Roberts blurted out that Cokie had been diagnosed in 2002 and that she had had a 14 year remission. That was the first I'd heard of that. That means that she lived with MBC for about 3 years.