Elizabeth Edwards, a familiar face to anyone following politics in the last few years, died Tuesday at her home in Chapel Hill, NC. She was 61.
An accomplished author, attorney and health care reform advocate, Edwards burst onto the national stage as the wife of former Democratic Senator, vice-presidential nominee and presidential candidate John Edwards. She quickly became a public figure in her own right, thanks to her public battle with breast cancer and her fierce advocacy for progressive causes — including health care reform.
Thrust into the political spotlight by her husband’s political ambition, and into the tabloid limelight by her husband’s infidelity, Edwards emerged as a political star that shone as bright — if not brighter than her husband’s in the end.
[TPM Slideshow: Elizabeth Edwards, 1949-2010]
It was just yesterday that Edwards announced she was suspending the cancer treatment that had been a part of her life on-and-off since 2004, through family confidantes who told the press that her disease had taken a turn for the worse. Those same friends confirmed that her estranged husband John, from whom she separated earlier this year, was at her side at the end.
Edwards first made public the cancer that would eventually take her life just days after her husband lost the 2004 presidential election at the side of Democratic nominee John Kerry. Following the admission and treatment, Edwards’ cancer went into remission before returning — in metastatic form — in 2007. That was the year John launched his second campaign for the presidency, which fizzled out before the revelations came to light that he had an affair with and fathered a child by a campaign videographer.
By her own account, neither the cancer diagnosis nor the family collapse was likely the toughest thing Edwards faced, however. In 1996, her 16 year-old son, Wade, was killed in a car wreck coming home from the family’s beach house. Edwards left her law practice after the tragedy and dropped her maiden name, Anania, in favor of her son’s last name. In the wake of Wade’s death, the Edwards family established the Wade Edwards Foundation to help high school students in school. The Edwards family has requested donations be made to the foundation in Elizabeth’s name following her death.
As her husband’s political life was coming to an end, Elizabeth Edwards’ was gaining steam. In April 2008 she became a fellow at the Center for American Progress, where she became a fierce advocate for universal health care and vocal pro-reform figure on the political left. She penned a second book, Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life’s Adversities, which laid bare the anguish of her family’s personal and political implosion. And she opened a furniture store, Red Window, in Chapel Hill as a reminder of her childhood.
Elizabeth Edwards leaves behind three children: Cate, Jack and Emma Claire.
