Hundreds of mourners packed a North Carolina church Saturday afternoon to honour the late Elizabeth Edwards, who died Tuesday after a six-year battle with cancer. She was 61.
Edwards' eldest daughter, Cate, recalled her mother's grace, strength and wit as she delivered the third and final eulogy of the service.
"She was feisty and she was witty," Cate Edwards said of her mother. "She always had the ability to make fun of herself and laugh at herself. She was smart as a whip and tried never to hold that over anyone, unless she was right and they were wrong."
Cate also read part of a letter her mother spent years writing, which was to be read by her children after her death.
"All I ever really needed was you -- your love, your presence -- to make my life complete," Cate read.
Edwards' estranged husband, former U.S. senator and Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards, attended the service and sat in the front row with the couple's children: Cate, 28, Emma Claire, 12, and Jack, 10. He did not speak at the service.
Other attendees included 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry and North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue.
After the public funeral service, Edwards was interred in a private ceremony at Raleigh's Historic Oakwood Cemetery, beside the spot where her 16-year-old son Wade was buried after he died in a 1996 car crash.
The funeral was held at Edenton Street United Methodist Church in Raleigh, N.C.
Two of Edwards' long-time friends, Hargrave McElroy and Glenn Bergenfield, also spoke at the service.
McElroy spoke of a friend whom she admired for her intelligence, warmth and poise, and praised Edwards for remaining an optimist in the face of adversity.
"She knew who she was," McElroy said. "She never held back. She was without pretence."
Bergenfield, who first met Edwards at law school, described a friend with "big world, head-turning, walk-into-the-poll gorgeous" looks who wowed her classmates and professors with her equally vibrant mind.
"Nothing that she said publicly, as a mother, as an author or as a friend -- none of it fed or was in any way fueled by ego," he said.
Edwards' funeral service was open to all-comers, thanks to a longtime personal policy that all her events be open to the public.
But the combination of open doors and a glaring media spotlight invited controversy, in the form of a protest by the controversial Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church.
The church -- which is known for its extreme opposition to homosexuality, Jews and other groups -- released a statement Friday, damning Edwards as a "resident of hell, where her rebellion and rage will take full flower."
But only five protesters showed up.
In response to the church group's promised presence, a counter-protest took place, and the supporters far outnumbered the detractors.
A mother of four, Edwards worked as a bankruptcy lawyer in Raleigh. She was diagnosed with cancer in 2004, shortly after her husband failed in his bid for the vice presidency.
Then, in 2008 John Edwards admitted he had had an affair -- and fathered a child -- with former campaign videographer Rielle Hunter.
In interviews following her husband's admission, Edwards said the events had caused her to focus on her role as a mother and advocate.
With files from The Associated Press
