Philadelphia Personal Injury Lawyer

I just think he's a good Christian boy," says Stacy Brewer, a retired bank executive who watched Edwards grow up. "He's smart, and he's a Democrat."

Edwards' years of youth were filled with sport, too. Standing 6 feet tall, he was lean and fast and lettered in high school football, basketball, track and tennis. He was the starting point guard on the basketball team and won some all--star honors as a wide receiver and defensive back on the football team.

Edwards had visions of collegiate glory, but after failing to win a football scholarship at Clemson University as a freshman, he transferred to N.C. State University and pursued a textile degree.

Edwards still has some jock left in him. He jogs an hour each day -- reduced to 45 minutes during the campaign. He has run four 26--mile marathons -- twice in the D.C. Marine Corps Marathon, once in the Philadelphia Marathon and once in the Camp Lejeune Marathon.

"I think it is fair to say that I am fairly driven," Edwards says.

His drive took him to Africa in 1995, where he and his teenage son Wade climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. Edwards overcame his fear of heights and a bad case of altitude sickness to reach the summit. His son, who had just graduated from an Outward Bound mountain climbing camp, helped haul his sick father to the top. John Edwards, already slim, lost 20 pounds in the climb.

That same drive took him through NCSU, an after-school job unloading trucks for UPS and law school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The day after passing the bar exam, Edwards married fellow law student Elizabeth Anania, a Florida native whose father taught Navy ROTC at Chapel Hill. The two moved to Nashville, Tenn., where they got jobs practicing law.

Edwards started his legal career defending banks, insurance companies and other institutions. After three years, the Edwardses joined the Raleigh law firm headed by Wade Smith, who would later become chairman of the state Democratic Party. Edwards gradually shifted his practice to personal injury law and eventually formed his own firm.