Elizabeth Edwards died

Elizabeth Anania Edwards, wife of U.S. presidential candidate, has died from cancer at her home in North Carolina today. She was 61.

Several journalists on Twitter are fondly recalling having spent time with Ms. Edwards, many pointing out that she forever changed the way spouses of politicians will forever be considered.

Elizabeth Edwards, who catapulted into the public eye in 2004 when her husband, Sen. John Edwards, ran for president on the Democratic ticket, is being remembered for her fortitude and grace.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, one of John Edwards' rivals for the Democratic nomination in 2008, said, "America has lost a passionate advocate for building a more humane and just society, for reforming our health care system, and for finding a cure for cancer once and for all."

She became a national figure in her fight against cancer and as a partner in her husband John’s political career. She spent much of her life as a little-known Raleigh lawyer and mother. All changed when John Edwards, her husband entered politics as a U.S. senator and became a two-time presidential candidate and the Democratic nominee for vice president.

Her husband’s career put her in 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.

In her second book, called Resilience, she said wrote the following words.

"Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it's less good than the one you had before," she said. "You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you've lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that's good."

She was a very strong human being and  an optimist.