N.Y. Times political reporter
Robin Toner, 54, the first woman to be a national political correspondent for the New York Times, died Friday of complications from colon cancer at her home in Washington, D.C., according to her husband, Peter Gosselin, the chief economics correspondent for the Los Angeles Times.
Toner had a hand in the coverage of five presidential elections and several congressional and gubernatorial campaigns in her nearly 25 years at the New York Times. She was the newspaper’s lead reporter on the election of Bill Clinton in 1992. Her authoritative reporting on a wide range of domestic issues earned the respect of practical politicians and policymakers.
“Robin was a reporter’s reporter who deeply cared about the people and the issues she covered,” Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said in a statement. “There was rarely a day during our healthcare debates that I didn’t open the paper and read Robin’s story and learn how what we were doing impacted people.”
She grew up in Chadds Ford, Pa., outside Philadelphia, and was a summa cum laude graduate of Syracuse University. She started her reporting career at the Charleston (W.Va.) Daily Mail and later worked for the Atlanta Journal and Constitution.
She joined the New York Times in 1985.
In addition to Gosselin, she is survived by their 11-year-old twins, Jacob and Nora; two brothers and three sisters.
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