Major Works
- Everybody’s Got Something: A Memoir (2014) with Veronica Chambers
- From the Heart: Seven Rules to Live By (2007)
Biography of Robin Roberts
Robin Roberts was born November 23, 1960, in Tuskegee, Alabama, but she grew up in Pass Christian, Mississippi. She is the youngest of four children. Her parents were Lucimarian Tolliver and Lawrence E. Roberts, one of the Tuskegee Airmen pilots. As a youth she played basketball and tennis, and in 1979 was salutatorian of her graduating high school class.
After high school, Roberts went to Southeastern Louisiana University, graduating in 1983 in communication. While in college, she played tennis and basketball and ended up being the school’s third all-time leading scorer and rebounder. Southeastern has retired her jersey. Roberts was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012.
Back cover of Everybody’s Got Something
Her sister Sally Ann Roberts was a local news anchor, and in 1983 Robin Roberts also became a sports reporter and anchor for a local television station in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. As Robin Roberts’s experience and popularity grew, she moved regularly to bigger cities: Biloxi in 1984, Nashville in 1986, and then Atlanta in 1988. She was hired by ESPN in 1990 to host Sportscenter where she stayed until 2005. She was the network’s first on-air black anchorwoman. During this time, she had been making guest appearances on Good Morning America. Finally, in 2005, she was hired as a full-time co-anchor of Good Morning America, and Roberts and George Stephanopoulos, serving as co-anchors, beat the ratings for NBC’s Today show, which had been No. 1 for more than ten years.
After undergoing treatment for breast cancer in 2007, Roberts developed in 2012 a rare blood disorder called myelodysplastic syndrome. Fortunately, her sister Sally Ann was a match, and Roberts underwent a bone marrow transplant. She was able to return occasionally to Good Morning America in 2013. Her book Everybody’s Got Something is a memoir of her life and her experiences. She also officially announced in 2014 that she is gay. Her significant other’s name is Amber Laign.
Related Websites
- Robin Roberts says “I’m Going to Beat This”
- She Made It has biography of Robin Roberts
- Wikipedia has many links and bio for Roberts
Bibliography
- Robin Roberts. [Internet]. 2015. The Biography.com website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/robin-roberts-21188247 [Accessed 26 Feb 2015].
- Roberts, Robin, Everybody’s Got Something. Grand Central Publishing, Hachette Book Group, 2014.