October 2003, Robbins, North Carolina, USA: North Carolina Senator John Edwards (c) with his family (l-r): Cate, Emma Claire, Jack and wife Elizabeth at his parents home in Robbins. John Edwards was born in 1953 in South Carolina and raised in Robbins, North Carolina. The first member of his family to attend college, he received a law degree with honors from UNC at Chapel Hill in 1977. The same year he and Elizabeth Anania (a fellow Chapel Hill law student) were married. Their first son Wade was killed at 16 in a car accident in 1996. His daughter Catharine is currently attending Princeton University. Edwards defeated the incumbent North Carolina candidate to become a United States Senator in 1998 and serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee.. Credit: Brownie Harris / Polaris (Polaris)
Elizabeth Edwards died yesterday after a brutal, six-year battle with cancer, surrounded by her children, brother, sister — and disgraced hubby John.
Edwards, the 61-year-old estranged wife of the failed presidential candidate, succumbed at her home in Chapel Hill, NC, at 10:15 a.m.
The scene was “very peaceful,” a friend told NBC News.
Edwards’ shattered kin issued a statement saying: “Today, we have lost the comfort of Elizabeth’s presence, but she remains the heart of this family. We love her and will never know anyone more inspiring or full of life.
“On behalf of Elizabeth we want to express our gratitude to the thousands of kindred spirits who moved and inspired her along the way. Your support and prayers touched our entire family.”
The statement added that “in lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Wade Edwards Foundation.”
Elizabeth and John Edwards’ son, Wade, was killed in a car accident in 1996 at age 16.
Edwards’ death came one day after her family had publicly announced that her doctors were withholding further treatment, acknowledging that there was no hope.
The always-feisty former lawyer had even already penned her own final, emotional goodbye to her loved ones.
“It isn’t possible to put into words the love and gratitude I feel to everyone. . . . To you, I simply say, you know,” Edwards wrote on her Facebook page on Monday.
Edwards — who separated from her husband in January after he finally ‘fessed up to having fathered a love child — had been battling metastasized breast cancer since 2004.
In 2007, doctors discovered that the cancer had spread to her bones — and finally, days ago, to her liver.
“She found out last week [that the end was near] and [was] at peace,” People reporter Sandra Westfall told NBC yesterday, just before Edwards died.
Westfall said that during Edwards’ final days, the former consummate politician’s wife had “a home full of relatives, which is how she always wanted it.”
“They [were] telling stories, looking at old photos, and having as many laughs as tears,” Westfall said.
She added that while Edwards clearly had conflicted feelings about her wayward, handsome hubby, “For the children [she] put on a brave face and kept that relationship intact.
“He [was] at the house . . . helping with the children, getting takeout for the family.”
John Kerry, who had run for president in 2004 on the Democratic ticket, with John Edwards as his running mate, called Elizabeth “an incredibly loving, giving and devoted mother” who fought cancer with “enormous grace and dignity.”
One pal said Elizabeth never wanted to be pitied either for her cancer — or the public humiliation she endured over her husband’s affair.
“Elizabeth did not want people to say she lost her battle with cancer. The battle was about living a good life and that she won,” the grieving friend told NBC.