Elizabeth Edwards

Edwards worked between 1949 and 2010 across attorney at law, lawyer, teacher, writer and jurist. This article rests on 46 published texts, 1 digitised documents and 20 scholarly references drawn from named institutional registers. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.

• Name — Elizabeth Edwards • Birth Name — Mary Elizabeth Anania • Born — 3 July 1949 • Birthplace — Jacksonville, Florida, U.S. • Died — 7 December 2010 • Place of death — Chapel Hill, North Carolina, U.S. • Resting Place — Historic Oakwood Cemetery • Occupation — Attorney • Children — 4, including Cate • Political Party — Democratic • Education — University of Mary Washington University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (BA, JD)

Mary Elizabeth Anania was born in 1949, the daughter of Mary Elizabeth Thweatt Anania (1923–2012) and Vincent Anania (1920–2008). She 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 wrote in her book Saving Graces that one of the difficult relocations that she went through was moving during her senior year of high school. Some of her childhood friends' fathers were killed in war, and Edwards recalled childhood memories of attending their funerals. She also wrote about the stress of living on a military base and seeing a constant stream of wounded soldiers while her father was away fighting in Vietnam. Edwards had two younger siblings: a brother, Jay Anania, a professor of film at New York University and a sister, Nancy Anania. 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.

Edwards began her career as a judicial law clerk for a federal judge Joseph Calvitt Clarke Jr.. She 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 kept the last name Anania until 1996, when she retired from the practice of law following the death of her son Wade; she changed her name to Elizabeth Anania Edwards in his memory. Following her retirement from law, she devoted much of her time to the administration of the Wade Edwards Foundation. 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. In September 2006, Random House published her first book, Saving Graces: Finding Solace and Strength from Friends and Strangers, which focused on the ways different 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, Random House published her second book, Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life's Adversities, in which she discussed the return of her illness, the deaths of her father and son and the effect of those events on her marriage, her husband's infidelity, and the state of healthcare in America. Both books were bestsellers.

During much of 2004, Edwards joined her husband, United States Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards, on the campaign trail. She took a similar role in her husband's 2008 presidential bid, and was one of his closest advisers. As spouse of the vice presidential nominee, Edwards spoke at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. 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." 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. 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 before Congress about healthcare reform on its behalf.

Anania met John Edwards when they were both law students, and they married on July 30, 1977. Early in their marriage, the couple had two children: Lucius "Wade" (1979–1996) and Catharine "Cate" (born 1982). Wade died at age 16 on April 4, 1996, when he lost control of his Jeep and crashed while driving from their home in Raleigh to the family's beach house near Wilmington. Three weeks before his death, Wade had been honored by First Lady Hillary 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. Wade is buried in Raleigh's Oakwood Cemetery, with a grave designed by Robert Mihaly. Following Wade's death, Elizabeth and John decided to have more children, and she underwent fertility treatments. They had a daughter, Emma Claire (born 1998), and a son, John "Jack" (born 2000). After John's public admission on January 21, 2010, that he fathered a child with a mistress named Rielle Hunter, Elizabeth legally separated from him, intending to file for divorce after North Carolina's mandatory one-year separation policy.

On November 3, 2004, the day her husband lost the vice presidency, Edwards announced that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. She later revealed that she discovered a lump in her breast while on a campaign stop a few weeks earlier in Kenosha, Wisconsin, 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 informed her that her cancer was no longer present, writing, "When I last went to my oncologist in North Carolina, she said that I had a lot going on in my life – and that is an understatement – but cancer was not one of them." At a March 22, 2007 press conference, John and Elizabeth 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. 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. The Edwardses and Carey stressed that the cancer was not curable, but was treatable. 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. However, days later, in an interview with Newsweeks 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." On December 6, 2010, Edwards' family announced that she had stopped cancer treatment after her doctors informed her that further treatment would be unproductive, because the cancer had 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: Edwards died the next day of metastatic breast cancer at home in Chapel Hill; she was 61 years old. 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, and Victoria Reggie Kennedy. Threats of protests by the anti-gay coalition led by 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. Elizabeth Edwards' marble monument was created by sculptor Robert Mihaly. She is interred with her son Wade in Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The authorities additionally record the heading Mary Elizabeth Anania Edwards. Her recorded confession was United Methodist Church. She married John Edwards. 4 children are recorded: Cate Edwards, Emma Claire Edwards, Jack Edwards and Wade Edwards.

Elizabeth Edwards is recorded with the occupation attorney at law. Recorded as a citizen of United States.