1. Mary Elizabeth Anania Edwards was an American attorney, author, and health care activist.
29 Facts About Elizabeth Edwards
1. 2.
Elizabeth Edwards was married to John Edwards, the former US Senator from North Carolina who was the Democratic vice-presidential nominee in the 2004 US presidential election.
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Elizabeth Edwards was his chief policy advisor during his presidential bid, and was instrumental in pushing him towards more liberal stances on subjects such as universal health care.
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Elizabeth Edwards was an advocate for gay marriage, and was against the Iraq War, both topics about which she and her husband disagreed.
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Mary Elizabeth Edwards Anania was born in 1949, the daughter of Mary Elizabeth Edwards Thweatt Anania and Vincent Anania.
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Elizabeth Edwards grew up in a military family, moving many times and never having a hometown.
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Elizabeth Edwards 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.
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Some of her childhood friends' fathers were killed in war, and Elizabeth Edwards recalled childhood memories of attending their funerals.
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Elizabeth Edwards 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.
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Elizabeth Edwards had two younger siblings: a brother, Jay Anania, a professor of film at New York University and a sister, Nancy Anania.
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Elizabeth Edwards transferred to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she earned a Bachelor's degree.
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Elizabeth Edwards began her career as a judicial law clerk for a federal judge Joseph Calvitt Clarke Jr.
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Elizabeth Edwards 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.
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Elizabeth Edwards 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.
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Elizabeth Edwards took a similar role in her husband's 2008 presidential bid, and was one of his closest advisers.
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Elizabeth Edwards disagreed with her husband on the topic of same-sex marriage.
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On June 10,2008, it was revealed that Elizabeth Edwards would be advising her husband's former rival and eventual Democratic nominee, Barack Obama, on healthcare issues.
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Elizabeth Edwards's husband endorsed Obama during the later stages of the 2008 primary season.
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Elizabeth Edwards became a senior fellow at the American Progress Action Fund and testified before Congress about healthcare reform on its behalf.
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On November 3,2004, the day her husband lost the vice presidency, Elizabeth Edwards announced that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer.
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Elizabeth Edwards 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.
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Elizabeth Edwards became an activist for women's health and cancer patients, and underwent oncology treatments.
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At a March 22,2007 press conference, John and Elizabeth Edwards announced that her cancer had returned, and that his campaign for the Presidency would continue as before.
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In early April 2007, Elizabeth Edwards was informed that her cancer might be treatable with anti-estrogen drugs.
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On December 6,2010, Elizabeth 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.
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Elizabeth Edwards had been advised she had several weeks to live.
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Elizabeth Edwards died the next day of metastatic breast cancer at home in Chapel Hill; she was 61 years old.
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Elizabeth Edwards's 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.
29.
Elizabeth Edwards is interred with her son Wade in Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, North Carolina.