Elaine Edwards
| Elaine Lucille Schwartzenburg Edwards | |
United States Senator from Louisiana (interim)
| |
| In office August 1, 1972 – November 13, 1972 | |
| Preceded by | Allen J. Ellender |
|---|---|
| Succeeded by | J. Bennett Johnston, Jr. |
First Lady of Louisiana
| |
| In office May 9, 1972 – March 10, 1980 | |
| Preceded by | Marjorie Funderburk McKeithen |
| Succeeded by | Dolores Brisbi Treen |
| In office March 12, 1984 – March 14, 1988 | |
| Preceded by | Dolores Treen |
| Succeeded by | Patti Crocker Roemer |
| Born | March 8, 1929 Marksville, Avoyelles Parish Louisiana |
| Died | May 14, 2018 (aged 89) Denham Springs Livingston Parish |
| Political party | Democrat |
| Spouse(s) | Edwin Edwards (married 1949-1989, divorced) |
| Children | Anna, Victoria, Stephen, and David Edwards |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Elaine Lucille Schwartzenburg Edwards (March 8, 1929 – May 14, 2018) was a Democrat who served in 1972 as an interim United States Senator for her native Louisiana. She was appointed to the vacancy created by the death of Allen Ellender by her then husband, Governor Edwin Edwards. She was the longest serving First Lady of Louisiana for twelve non-consecutive years from 1972 to 1980 and again from 1984 to 1988. In her later years, she was a small fashion businesswoman and a soap opera actress in New York City.
Originally from Marksville in Avoyelles Parish in south central Louisiana, Mrs. Edwards was a daughter of Errol Leo Schwartzenburg (1909-1999) and the former Myrl Dupuy (1907-2001).[1] She had two brothers, Frank Charles Schwartzenberg (1928-2013), who relocated to Marshalltown, Iowa, and a younger sibling, Ralph Schwatzenberg (born 1936).
She wed Edwin Edwards in 1949 but found too late that she disliked her husband's commitment to "the fishbowl of politics": "All I wanted to do was get married and have babies and keep house," she said in 1984. The Edwardses divorced in 1989;[2] he remarried twice, but she remained single thereafter.
Edwin Edwards named his wife to the Senate on August 1, 1972. She served only until the November general election,[2] which was handily won in a multi-candidate field by the Democra former state Senator J. Bennett Johnston, Jr., of Shreveport, who coincidentally had been her husband's 1971 intra-party gubernatorial opponent. Johnston held the seat until his retirement after four terms on January 3, 1997.
During the 1976 presidential election, Mrs. Edwards surprised observers by endorsing Republican nominee, Gerald Ford, for a full term of his own.[3] She by-passed her fellow Democrat, Jimmy Carter of Georgia, while her husband first endorsed California's leftist Governor Jerry Brown, but later backed Carter when Brown failed to obtain the nomination. During her last term as First Lady and thereafter, Mrs. Edwards owned a small business which made custom-made dresses. In the 1990s, she moved to New York City in the 1990s to find occasional work as a soap opera actress.
Edwin and Elaine Edwards had four children together, Anna, Victoria, Stephen, and David. She died at the age of eighty-nine at a daughter's home in Denham Springs near Baton Rouge.[2]
References
- ↑ {{cite web|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/83021563%7Ctitle=Errol Leo Schwartzenburg|date=January 6, 2012|publisher=FindAGrave|accessdate=May 15, 2018
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Tyler Bridges (May 14, 2018). Former Louisiana first lady Elaine Edwards dies: Edwin Edwards: 'She was a great asset'. The Baton Rouge Advocate. Retrieved on May 15, 2018.
- ↑ Gerald R. Ford (1977). Public papers of the Presidents of the United States, Gerald R. Ford. Government Printing Office, 2324–25.
