Born in Chicago, Illinois,[2] Robertson attended Northwestern University, where she was a member of Alpha Phi sorority until she graduated in 1948.
From 1951 to 1953, she was a correspondent in Germany for the Milwaukee Journal and a feature writer and columnist — based in Paris, Berlin, Frankfurt and London[2] — for the New York Herald Tribune from 1952 to 1953.
Robertson joined the staff of The New York Times in 1955, beginning as a general assignment reporter for the city desk and women's news.
From 1963 to 1972, Robertson was a Washington correspondent, focusing on the White House, Congress, presidential campaigns and voting and campus political trends across the United States.
[4] She formally retired from the Times in 1988 (serving her last five years as a reporter on the cultural news desk), but continued to write for the paper until 1996.