Joan C. Edwards
Joan Cavill Edwards (1918 – May 7, 2006) was a New Orleans jazz singer and well-known West Virginia-based philanthropist.
Biography
[edit]Born Joan Cavill in London, England, she moved to New Orleans at the age of four. By age 11, she was singing on New Orleans radio station WWL, the start of a musical career that included filming movie shorts, singing with orchestras, recording with Clyde McCoy and his Kentucky Band, and performing in New York, Pittsburgh and Chicago.
While singing at Pittsburgh's William Penn Hotel, she met James F. Edwards, owner and CEO of National Mattress Company (Namaco), whom she married in 1937.[1] She moved to Huntington, West Virginia, native home of her husband.
Joan and James Edwards donated more than $65 million to Marshall University and the Huntington community.[2] She was the largest single donor to Marshall University in the modern era. Joan C. Edwards died on May 7, 2006, from liver cancer. She spent the last few days of her life receiving treatment and care in the cancer center she helped to create, which is located in Huntington, West Virginia, at Cabell Huntington Hospital.[3]
Upon her death, the Joan C. Edwards Charitable Foundation was created in her name to help fund scholarships for medical school.[4]
Buildings named after her
[edit]- Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine
- Joan C. Edwards Stadium
- Marshall University Jomie Jazz Center
- Marshall University Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center
- Edwards Comprehensive Cancer Center
Trivia
[edit]Joan C. Edwards Stadium is one of two NCAA Division I football stadiums named after a woman. The other is Williams-Brice Stadium at the University of South Carolina named after Martha Williams-Brice.
References
[edit]- ^ "In Memoriam Joan Cavill Edwards" Archived 2012-02-04 at the Wayback Machine, "Marshall University", accessed [May 12, 2006]
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-07-04. Retrieved 2006-05-12.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Huntington News". Archived from the original on 2008-12-03. Retrieved 2006-05-12.
- ^ Okoben, Janet (25 February 2010). "A parent's dream: scholarship covers cost of college and medical school for Cleveland high school student". Cleveland.com. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
- 1918 births
- 2006 deaths
- Jazz musicians from New Orleans
- Deaths from liver cancer in the United States
- Musicians from Huntington, West Virginia
- Musicians from London
- Marshall University people
- English emigrants to the United States
- Deaths from cancer in West Virginia
- 20th-century American musicians
- Philanthropists from West Virginia
- 20th-century Jazz musicians from New Orleans
- 21st-century Jazz musicians from New Orleans