Elizabeth Edwards—an author and attorney who became known in her later years for being estranged from her husband, one-time politician John Edwards—died of cancer Dec. 7 in North Carolina at age 61, according to the Washington Post.
Elizabeth found out she had breast cancer on Election Day 2004, when her husband was the vice-presidential candidate on the ticket with Sen. John Kerry, and it resurfaced when John launched a presidential bid four years later. Elizabeth was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2007. In 2008, John publicly admitted to having lied about having an extramarital affair with Rielle Hunter.