Robin Roberts: 'Queen of the Couch'

Sept. 7, 2006 — -- Long before coming to "Good Morning America," Robin Roberts was voted Most Likely to Succeed, Student Body Favorite, and Most Athletic -- and that was just during her senior year of high school.

"Everybody loved Robin," said her close friend Luella Fariconeture.

In high school, Robin was a member of the band, the French club, and on the yearbook staff.

But underneath Robin's high-achieving exterior was a fierce competitor from her pigtail-wearing days.

Just ask her older sister, Dorothy, about battles over the unofficial title of "Queen of the Couch."

"'Queen of the Couch' was an idiotic game we developed," Dorothy said. "When the commercial came on, we literally would tear each other off the couch. And when the show came on, whoever was on the couch was queen of the couch."

"I was relentless," Robin said.

"She would claw [and] really scratch," Dorothy said.

Class Cutup

Adolescent mischief sometimes spilled over into the classroom, and one teacher wasn't so amused.

"She had a number of peers with her, and you know, to keep friends at that age group, Robin had to keep them," said Ms. Beck, Robin's former teacher. "I guess she forgot about me."

"There was a very popular song at the time, 'Nothing From Nothing Leaves Nothing,'" Robin said. "And so I would cut up in class -- and I remember this like it was yesterday -- and Ms. Beck was up in the front of the class. And she looked straight at me."

Ms. Beck had a quick response for Robin's mischief.

"I would say, 'Nothing from nothing leaves nothing from nothing leaves nothing. And you better have something if you want to be in this class with me,'" Ms. Beck said.

New Beginnings

As the daughter of an Air Force colonel, Robin was accustomed to moving around and starting over.

In 1976, she arrived at the steps of Pass Christian High School in Mississippi to begin her freshman year.

Even for the most seasoned military offspring, it was a bumpy start.

"Sometimes she was a little nerdy," Luella Fariconeture said.

Robin noticed the stares from her new classmates.

"There was a little bit of a 'Who is she? Who's this?' Because they weren't used to getting new kids in town," Robin said.

"I remember when I first saw her," said another close friend and former classmate Cheryl Antoine.

"She was walking into the auditorium, and I thought, 'Are those legs ever going to stop?' And she had on a green plaid suit, and I thought that was kind of different."

Robin's long legs got her on the basketball team where she met Fariconeture and Antoine, two of her dearest friends.

Friends and teachers noticed that the trio soon became inseparable.

"As the teachers used to say: 'You saw one, you saw all three of us.' True blues," Fariconeture said.

Robin also took part in some rebellious teenage behavior -- smoking.

"We all decided that we were going to smoke a cigarette," Fariconeture said. "And we all coughed our fool heads off, but we did it."

Robin refuses to plead guilty to that mishap.

"Your honor, I have no recollection to that moment. It may have happened. I have no recollection," Robin said.

Antoine admits being a ringleader in the act of rebellion.

"I was actually the 'true blue' that spent my last 75 cents and bought the pack of cigarettes," Antoine said.

Head of the Class

Despite a rough start, Robin was bestowed a special honor by her classmates: Miss Pass Christian High 1979.

"I'll never forget that," Robin said. "And I think that I took that with me and realized that I can take chances and that people, nine times out of 10, they're gonna, they're gonna encourage you."

Robin credits her parents for keeping her on the straight and narrow from the very beginning, helping her carve a path to future success.

"She knew when to have fun, but also when to get back to business in the classroom," one friend said.

Robin says she was raised to do well in school -- her parents were teachers.

"My parents were educators. I had to do well in school. I didn't have a choice," Robin said. "I would come home and write a note, and think I'm being a good kid and saying, you know, 'Mom, I'm down the street. Be back for dinner.'"

"I'd come in, and that note would be corrected in red ink when I came back from playing," Robin said.

"Education was always [important] -- so when people give me a hard time in saying, 'Oh, I never saw you study.' Being a child of Lawrence and Lucy Marion Roberts, you were always a student."

Robin also credits Ms. Beck for instilling the values she has carried into her adult life.

But Ms. Beck says Robin's parents set the foundation long before she met her student.

"They baked the cake. I only put the icing on top," Ms. Beck said.