USS Roanoke (CL-145) was the second ship of the Worcester-class light cruisers completed for the U.S. Navy shortly after the end of World War II.

Roanoke was laid down on 15 May 1945 by the New York Shipbuilding Corp., Camden, New Jersey; launched on 16 June 1947; sponsored by Miss Julia Ann Henebry; and commissioned at Philadelphia on 4 April 1949.

Following a shakedown cruise in the Caribbean, Roanoke undertook maneuvers in the Atlantic as a unit of the Battleship-Cruiser Force and on 6 January 1950 got underway to join the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean for her first extended deployment.

Returning to the United States in May, she alternated 6th Fleet deployments with operations in the western Atlantic until the summer of 1952 when she added a midshipman's cruise to Europe and the Caribbean to her schedule.

She was berthed at Mare Island in 1963 until sold to the Levin Metals Corporation of San Jose, California on 22 February 1972.