Opinion: Remembering Cokie Roberts

Cokie Roberts was fierce and funny, hard-nosed and kindhearted. She was steeped in politics, as the daughter of two Louisiana pols, Hale and Lindy Boggs, and enjoyed the game. But she also elevated politics with her elegant reporting.
Cokie wasn't fooled by the blather of politicians, but also wasn't smug about journalism. We covered a few primaries and papal trips together, and Cokie used to caution young reporters with preconceptions, "Stories are so simple until you actually cover them."
It may be hard for many to understand today how great female reporters used to often be assigned just to cover flower shows, dog pageants and recipes.
But Cokie Roberts covered the U.S. Congress for a fledgling NPR, while Linda Wertheimer reported on politics, and Nina Totenberg covered the nation's highest court. Susan Stamberg gave NPR a distinctive voice: astute and warm, not sonorous. They've been called NPR's "Founding Mothers" who brought the voices of women into the news and made NPR into a fixture of American life. There are women with vital jobs all over America today who came of age hearing Cokie and those other voices.