Former US Rep. Lindy Boggs dead at 97

Former U.S. Rep. and ambassador to the Vatican Lindy Boggs died Saturday at her home in Chevy Chase, Md., her family said. She was 97. Boggs did not formally enter politics until she was in her 50s, when she succeeded her husband, longtime Rep. Hale Boggs, D-La., after his death in a plane crash in 1972. She served nine terms in the House of Representatives, and was named U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican in 1997 by President Clinton at age 81. The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune said Linday Boggs was a product of an upper-class Southern upbringing that helped make her a high-profile figure in Washington social circles during the capital city's post-war ascension to world power center. She once observed the key to being successful was allowing other people to take credit for things you accomplish, the newspaper said. Lindy Boggs was the mother of ABC News and NPR commentator Cokie Roberts. Funeral plans and the exact cause of Boggs' death were not immediately released.