Please tell us about Robin Roberts of Good Morning America.
—Dorothy Barnett, Salisbury, N.C.
Born in Tuskegee, Ala. (pop. 11,846), Roberts says she would have chosen sports as a career if she had been any good. After graduating with honors from Southeastern Louisiana University with a communications degree, she landed her first job as a weekend anchor in Jasper, Miss. (pop. 18,149), making $5.50 an hour. After stints at a Nashville, Tenn., TV station and ESPN, she joined Good Morning America in the mid-1990s and became a regular news anchor in 2002. One of her favorite assignments occurred recently when she went to Africa with former President Clinton on his AIDS initiative. "Here I was 44 in Lisutu, where the life expectancy is 37 years old," she says. "It was so great seeing Mr. Clinton roll up his sleeves, really wanting to bring medicine to this region. I did an interview with a Mozambique woman with five children. She has AIDS, her husband died of AIDS, her little boy has AIDS, and I left the interview bawling like a kid. Then I was walking down the street and these women dancing pulled me in. When I asked the translator what was the occasion, I found out they were dancing because they were celebrating life." Roberts is single and lives in New York City.
