Elizabeth Anania Edwards (she was born
Mary Elizabeth Anania) she was an
American attorney, author and a
health care activist died from breast cancer she was , 61. She was married to
John Edwards, the former
U.S. Senator from
North Carolina who was the
2004 United States Democratic vice-presidential nominee.
Edwards lived a private life until her husband's rise as senator and ultimately unsuccessful
vice presidential and
presidential campaigns. She was his chief policy advisor during his presidential bid,
[1] and was instrumental in pushing him towards more liberal stances on subjects such as
universal health care.
[1] She was also an advocate of
gay marriage[2] and was against the
war in Iraq,
[1] both topics about which she and her husband disagreed.
[1]
In the final years of her life, Edwards publicly dealt with her husband's admission of
an extramarital affair and her
breast cancer, writing two books and making numerous media appearances.
[3][4] She separated from John Edwards in early 2010.
[5] On December 6, 2010, her family announced that her cancer
had spread and her doctors had recommended that further treatment would be unproductive. She died the following day.
[6]
| | (July 3, 1949 – December 7, 2010) |
Family and early life
Elizabeth Anania, the daughter of Mary Elizabeth Thweatt Anania (born 1923) and Vincent Anania (1920–2008),
[7] grew up in a military family, moving many times and never having a hometown. Her father, a
United States Navy pilot, was transferred from military base to military base during her childhood and adolescence; for part of her childhood, she lived in
Japan, where
her father was stationed. She relates in her book
Saving Graces that one of the difficult relocations that she went through was moving during her senior year of high school.
[8] Some of her childhood friends' fathers were killed in war and Edwards relates childhood memories of attending their funerals.
[9] She also relates the stress of living at a military base with hospital facilities that handled a constant stream of wounded soldiers while her father was away fighting in Vietnam.
[10]
Edwards had two younger siblings;
[11] a brother, Jay Anania, a professor of film at
New York University[12] and a sister, Nancy Anania.
[13] Edwards graduated from the Francis C. Hammond High School in
Alexandria, Virginia, then attended
Mary Washington College in
Fredericksburg, Virginia. She transferred to the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), where she earned a
Bachelor's degree. After three years of
postgraduate studies in
English, she entered UNC's School of Law and earned a
Juris Doctor. She met John Edwards when they were both law students, and they married on July 30, 1977.
[14]
The couple had four children: Wade (1979–1996),
Cate (b. 1982), Emma Claire (b. 1998), and Jack (b. 2000). Wade was killed in April 1996 when he lost control of his Jeep while driving from their home in
Raleigh to the family's beach house near
Wilmington.
[15] Three weeks before his death, Wade Edwards was honored by First Lady
Hillary Rodham Clinton at the
White House as one of ten finalists in an essay contest sponsored by the
National Endowment for the Humanities and the
Voice of America. Wade, accompanied by his parents and his sister, met North Carolina Senator
Jesse Helms. After Wade died, Helms entered his essay and his obituary into the
Congressional Record.
[16]
Following Wade's death, the Edwardses decided to have more children, and she underwent fertility treatments;
[17] Emma Claire was born when Elizabeth was 48, and Jack was born when she was 50. She was pregnant with Emma Claire during her husband's 1998 Senate race. After John's January 21, 2010, public admission that he fathered a child with
Rielle Hunter, Elizabeth
legally separated from him, intending to file for
divorce after North Carolina's mandatory one-year separation.
[18][19][20][21]
Professional life
Edwards began her career as a
law clerk for a
federal judge, then moved to
Nashville, Tennessee, in 1978 to become an associate at the law firm of Harwell Barr Martin & Sloan. In 1981, she and her husband moved their family to Raleigh, where she worked in the
Office of the Attorney General, and at the law firm Merriman, Nicholls, and Crampton. She used her maiden name professionally until 1996,
[22] when she retired from legal practice upon the death of her son and changed her name to Elizabeth Edwards. Much of her time since leaving legal practice was devoted to the administration of the Wade Edwards Foundation.
[23] She taught legal writing as an
adjunct instructor at the
University of North Carolina School of Law and worked as a
substitute teacher in the
Wake County Public Schools. In August 2009, she opened a furniture store in Chapel Hill.
[24]
In September 2006,
Random House published her first book,
Saving Graces: Finding Solace and Strength from Friends and Strangers,
[3] focusing on the ways in which various communities have helped her through the trials of her life, from her itinerant military childhood to the death of her son and her early bout with breast cancer. In May 2009, they published her second book,
Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life's Adversities,
[4] further discussing the return of her illness, the deaths of her father and son, the effect of these events on her marriage, her husband's infidelity, and the general state of health care in America.
[25][26] Both books are best-sellers.
Political activity
During much of 2004, Edwards joined her husband and United States Democratic Presidential nominee
Senator John Kerry on the nationwide campaign trail. She took a similar role in her husband's 2008 presidential bid and was considered one of his closest advisers.
Edwards disagreed with her husband on the topic of
same-sex marriage. She became a vocal advocate in 2007 when she stated: "I don't know why someone else’s marriage has anything to do with me. I'm completely comfortable with gay marriage."
[27]
On June 10, 2008, it was revealed that Edwards would be advising her husband's former rival, and eventual Democratic nominee,
Barack Obama, on
healthcare issues.
[28] Her husband also endorsed Obama during the later stages of the
2008 primary season.
Edwards became a senior fellow at the
American Progress Action Fund and testified to Congress about
health care reform on their behalf.
[29]
Illness and death
On November 3, 2004, the day Kerry conceded defeat in the
2004 U.S. presidential election, Edwards was diagnosed with
breast cancer. She later revealed that she discovered a lump in her breast while on a campaign stop in
Kenosha, Wisconsin, a few weeks earlier, in the midst of the campaign. Edwards became an activist for women's health and cancer patients, and underwent oncology treatments. In a November 2006 comment on the
Daily Kos website, Edwards stated that on her last visit, her
oncologist said that cancer was not one of the things going on in her life.
[30]
At a March 22, 2007, press conference,
[31] John and Elizabeth Edwards announced that her cancer had returned, and that his campaign for the Presidency would continue as before. The announcement included the information that she was asymptomatic, and therefore that she expected to be an active part of the campaign.
[32] Her doctor, Dr. Lisa Carey of the
University of North Carolina's Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, described the diagnosis as stage IV (
metastatic) breast cancer with a spot in her rib and possibly her
lung. In a March 25 interview on
60 Minutes, Edwards said that there was also a spot in her hip found on her bone scan.
[33] The Edwardses and Dr. Carey stressed that the cancer was not curable, but was treatable.
[31][34] In early April 2007, Edwards was informed that her cancer might be treatable with anti-
estrogen drugs. "I consider that a good sign. It means there are more medications to which I can expect to be responsive," she told the
Associated Press during a campaign stop with her husband in
Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
[35] In a 2007 Interview with Newsweek's Jonathan Alter, she said, "When I was first diagnosed, I was going to beat this. I was going to be the champion of cancer. And I don't have that feeling now. The cancer will eventually kill me. It's going to win this fight."
[36]
On December 6, 2010, Edwards' family announced that she had stopped cancer treatment after her doctors advised her that further treatment would be unproductive, the cancer having metastasized to her liver. She had been advised she had several weeks to live. Her family members, including her estranged husband John, were with her. She posted her last message on Facebook:
"You all know that I have been sustained throughout my life by three saving graces – my family, my friends, and a faith in the power of resilience and hope. These graces have carried me through difficult times and they have brought more joy to the good times than I ever could have imagined. The days of our lives, for all of us, are numbered. We know that. And, yes, there are certainly times when we aren't able to muster as much strength and patience as we would like. It's called being human. But I have found that in the simple act of living with hope, and in the daily effort to have a positive impact in the world, the days I do have are made all the more meaningful and precious. And for that I am grateful. It isn't possible to put into words the love and gratitude I feel to everyone who has and continues to support and inspire me every day. To you I simply say: you know."
[37]
Edwards died of
metastatic breast cancer on December 7, 2010, at home in Chapel Hill, surrounded by her family and friends.
[38] Her funeral, held at
Edenton Street United Methodist Church in Raleigh, was open to the public and was attended by over 1,200 people, including North Carolina Governor
Beverly Perdue, Senators
John Kerry and
Kay Hagan,
[39] and
Victoria Reggie Kennedy.
[40] Threats of protests by the anti-gay hate-group
[41] Westboro Baptist Church attracted at least 300 local Raleigh residents prepared to counterprotest in support of the Edwards family, but only five Westboro protesters showed up and were kept blocks away.
[40][41] Edwards was buried in
Historic Oakwood Cemetery next to her son Wade.
[40]
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The James Moody Quartet (with pianist Renee Rosnes, bassist Todd Coolman, and drummer Adam Nussbaum) was Moody's vehicle later is his career.. Moody played regularly with Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Stars and the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Stars Big Band and also often collaborated with former Gillespie alumnus, the trumpeter-composer-conductor Jon Faddis; Faddis and Moody worked in 2007 with the WDR Big Band in Cologne, Germany under the direction of Michael Abene.
