Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts always knew she had a remarkable mother--what she didn’t know was how much more there was to learn from her. My Story, My Song: Mother-Daughter Reflections on Life and Faith by Lucimarian Roberts as told to Missy Buchanan, with reflections from Robin Roberts (Upper Room, April) is a memoir that is a tribute to hope, grace under fire, and the power of faith.
The book follows the challenges and triumphs of Lucimarian Tolliver Roberts whose grandfather was a sharecropper, and her late husband Lawrence, a Tuskegee Airman. Born in 1924, she experienced the seismic shifts of the past century including the Great Depression, World War II, segregation, and the civil rights movement.
The first woman in her family to attend college, Lucimarian Roberts raised a family and moved twenty-seven times to be with her husband, who after the war continued his career as an Air Force officer. She eventually served as director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta (New Orleans branch) and devoted time to numerous charitable organizations. Her deep faith sustained her through life’s challenges, including riding out the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in her Biloxi home.
Robin Roberts says that faith is pervasive in her family. “It’s like breathing. I can’t imagine going though life, going through cancer [Roberts is a breast cancer survivor] and the death of my beloved father without the true, unwavering faith she taught me.” She says her mother also loved singing hymns while accompanying herself on the piano. “Whenever I am home and I hear her play the piano, there is a calm that comes over me.”
Collaborating with her mother was sometimes challenging, laughs Roberts, but in the end it was “a labor of love and I learned so much, not just about her stories but about her.” There are many inspiring life lessons embedded in My Story, My Song, she says. “My mother has always been about finding the message in whatever we are going through and to be of service to others. She met Eleanor Roosevelt, she traveled the world, she met presidents, but she believes it is not what you accomplish in life. It’s what you overcome.”
My Story, My Song will officially launch in Robin Robert’s hometown of Pass Christian, Miss., on April 20, 2012, at an invitation-only mother-daughter tea with a reading by Mrs. Roberts and special music.
