Elaine Lucille Edwards

US Senator. She served in the United States Senate from the state of Louisiana from August 1, 1972 to November 13, 1972. She married Edwin Edwards in 1949 and saw her husband's rise in politics from being mayor of Crowley, Louisiana to Congress and then to the governorship of Louisiana. In May of 1972, she became the First Lady of Louisiana when her husband was elected governor. A few months later, she was appointed by her husband to fill the seat of longtime Senator Allen J. Ellender, who had passed away. She served in the United States Senate for a few months until a new senator, J. Bennett Johnston, was elected in November of 1972. After leaving the Senate, she went back to being the First Lady of Louisiana until her husband left office in 1980. She was the First Lady of Louisiana again from 1984 to 1988 during her husband's second tenure as governor. In 1989, her husband asked her for a divorce after forty years of marriage. She went on to live with her daughter Victoria until she passed away.