RALEIGH, N.C. -- Elizabeth Anania Edwards, who became a national figure in her fight against cancer and as a partner in her husband's political career, died Tuesday afternoon. She was 61.
Edwards spent much of her life as a little-known Raleigh lawyer and mother. But that all changed when her husband, John Edwards, entered politics as a U.S. senator, two-time presidential candidate and Democratic nominee for vice president.
Her husband's career propelled her into the spotlight as a smart, plain-spoken wife who was a key adviser to her husband.
She later became a figure of sympathy as she battled breast cancer and dealt with her husband's infidelity. And, in the last few years, her public image shifted again: the scorned woman whose husband fathered a child with another woman.
She and John Edwardsseparated at the beginning of 2010 but remained close.
Through it all, Edwards helped change the way political wives were viewed. She was the self-proclaimed "anti-Barbie" who was comfortable sitting in on campaign strategy meetings, chatting with Oprah Winfrey on TV, or even going head-to-head with conservative columnist Ann Coulter.
"I'm 5 feet 2, dark-haired and could hardly be further from the Barbie figure," Edwards once said. "I think of myself as a fairly serious person."
Elizabeth Anania was born July 3, 1949, in Jacksonville, Fla., at the naval air station, the first of three children.
After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she spent two years in graduate school with the goal of earning a Ph.D. in English literature and pursuing a teaching career. But job prospects for English graduates were poor and she entered law school.
It was at the University of North Carolina's law school that Elizabeth Anania met Johnny Edwards, three years her junior.
He was the pseudo redneck who had been out of the South only once - on a trip to Washington. He had few intellectual interests. She was a devotee of Henry James and a politically active liberal Democrat.
He was the soft-spoken, get-along guy. She was an outspoken, hot-tempered Italian-American who dominated every social situation. She was also regarded as more of a catch.
They were married a few days after they graduated and passed the bar exam.
Although John Edwards had the high-powered legal career, their marriage was one of intellectual equals. She became his most trusted adviser in both law and politics.
Edwards could have had a high-profile law career like her husband's, but she did what many women do: She balanced her career with rearing two children - Wade, born in 1979, and Cate, born in 1982.
The family's life took a dark turn in 1996 when Wade, 16, was killed in an automobile wreck on Interstate 40 between Raleigh and the N.C. coast.
The couple were crippled emotionally by Wade's death. John Edwards stopped working for six months and she quit practicing law for good.
Wade's death changed the entire arc of the Edwardses' lives. They found religion, changed careers to politics and began a second family.
"We asked ourselves, what gives us joy?" she said. "Well, that was easy. Children gave us joy."
At age 48, Edwards had a daughter, Emma Claire, and at age 50, she had Jack.
Edwards was an active participant in her husband's political career, serving as a sounding board for nearly a decade as he climbed the ladder, which culminated with his selection as the Democratic vice presidential running mate of Sen. John Kerry in 2004.
It was during a campaign trip in Wisconsin a few weeks before the 2004 election that Edwards noticed a lump in her breast. Tests indicated she had cancer.
In 2006, Edwards wrote her best-selling autobiography, "Saving Graces." The book focused on her health struggles and sold nearly 180,000 copies.
When John Edwards entered the 2008 presidential campaign, she said her cancer was in remission. But in March 2007, she and her husband announced that her cancer had spread to her bones and that while it was treatable, it was not curable.
Earlier this year, Edwards released her second book, "Resilience," in which she talked about the pain of John's infidelity.
Then, she retreated to a private life again.
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