Elizabeth Edwards was a unique, brave, inspirational, accomplished and compassionate woman.

Elizabeth Edwards was born July third, 1949 in Jacksonville, Florida. Her father was a navy pilot and she spent much of her childhood in Japan. She graduated from UNC Chapel Hill, the school where her father had worked as the assistant lacrosse coach.

After graduation, she went to UNC's law school and that's where she met John Edwards. The two were married at Bethel Baptist Church in Chapel Hill July 30, 1977. In 1981...Elizabeth went to work for the attorney general's office before moving to the law firm Merriman, Nicholls, and Crampton.

Elizabeth also clerked for a federal judge, taught legal writing. She authored an inspirational book in 2009, "Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life’s Adversities.” Writing on the death of her father, and on imperfection, she wrote:

Too many times I have had to use my father’s strength — or my mother’s grace as she stood beside him — as a touchstone. I suspect we each have someone like him, someone whose personal courage in the face of impossible odds inspires us to do something we thought we could not do, who reminds us that what seems like a mountain in front of us can in fact be climbed. My father was an imperfect man in many ways, but maybe it was better that he was imperfect and that I knew he was, for I learned that perfection was not a requirement of resilience. This was Dad, and if he could decide to live, so could I.

R.I.P. Elizabeth. Your journey here is over, but your legacy will live on in the hearts of so many people whose lives you touched with your compassion, strength and resolve.

Update: A terrific photo montage of Elizabeth through the years is here.