James B. Edwards

Edwards was born in Hawthorne, Florida, and was an officer in the U.S. Maritime Service during World War II. He continued his service in the U.S. Naval Reserve after the war. Edwards received a bachelor's degree in 1950 at the College of Charleston where he was a brother of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity. He received a D.M.D. in 1955 from the University of Louisville, and did a dental internship at the University of Pennsylvania. Returning to Charleston, Edwards established a dentistry practice in 1960 that specialized in oral surgery. He subsequently held a variety of positions associated with dentistry in the community.

In 1970, Edwards became chairman of the Republican Party of South Carolina's 1st congressional district. As a supporter of Republican gubernatorial nominee U.S. Representative Albert Watson of South Carolina's 2nd congressional district, Edwards claimed that Watson's Democratic opponent, John C. West, worked covertly in 1969 against the nomination of South Carolina's Clement Haynsworth to the United States Supreme Court. The Nixon nominee failed in the U.S. Senate, 55 to 45, on grounds of alleged bias against organized labor and a lack of support for civil rights. Edwards predicted that as governor West would install "an ultra-liberal, minority-dominated state government," citing West's political ties to Hubert H. Humphrey and longtime NAACP executive director Roy Wilkins.Charleston News & Courier, September 25, 1970

Edwards first ran for office in 1971, in a special election to fill the vacancy in the Charleston-centered 1st congressional district caused by the death of longtime Democrat L. Mendel Rivers. Edwards narrowly lost to one of Rivers's staffers, Mendel Jackson Davis,[http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=176341 1971 special election results from South Carolina's 1st District] but gained enough name recognition from his strong showing that he was elected to the South Carolina Senate as a Republican from white-majority Charleston County. Two years later, he entered the governor's race as a long-shot candidate. Edwards upset General William Westmoreland in the Republican primary and defeated Democratic Congressman William Jennings Bryan Dorn of South Carolina's 3rd congressional district in the general election. Dorn had become the Democratic nominee after the winner of the runoff election, Charles D. "Pug" Ravenel, was disqualified on residency grounds.

Edwards was elected the first Republican governor of the state since Daniel Henry Chamberlain in 1876. 1974 was otherwise a dismal year for Republicans nationally because of the Watergate scandal and lingering opposition to the Vietnam War, both of which may have contributed to the primary defeat of Westmoreland, commander of U.S. forces during the late 1960s.

At that time South Carolina governors were not allowed to serve two terms in succession, so Edwards was unable to seek reelection in 1978. In 1981, U.S. president Ronald Reagan appointed Edwards secretary of energy. He resigned two years later to serve as the President of the Medical University of South Carolina, a post he held for 17 years. In 1997, Edwards was inducted into the South Carolina Hall of Fame. In 2008, he endorsed Mitt Romney for his party's presidential nomination.{{Cite web|url=http://www.aboutmittromney.com/state/s.htm|title=South Carolina endorsements of Mitt Romney|website=www.aboutmittromney.com|access-date=May 19, 2019}}

As governor and thereafter, Edwards developed a close friendship with his Democratic predecessor, John C. West, whom he had earlier accused of undermining the Haynsworth nomination.

In 1994, the state legislature renamed a portion of the Mark Clark Expressway that crosses the Wando River the James B. Edwards Bridge.{{cite web | url=http://www.scstatehouse.gov/query.php?search=DOC&searchtext=Washington%25&category=LEGISLATION&session=0&conid=6815337&result_pos=210&keyval=1101170&numrows=10 | title=S*1170 - Session 110 (1993–1994) | publisher=South Carolina Legislative Services Agency | access-date=December 26, 2014 }} In 2010, the new MUSC dental building and the dental school was renamed the James B. Edwards College of Dental Medicine. Edwards died at his home in Mount Pleasant on December 26, 2014, from complications from a stroke. He was 87.[https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/27/us/politics/james-b-edwards-a-long-shot-as-governor-of-south-carolina-dies-at-87.html?_r=0 James B. Edwards, a Long-Shot as Governor of South Carolina, Dies at 87]{{cite news | url=http://www.thestate.com/2014/12/26/3894147/former-gov-james-edwards-dies.html | title=Former Gov. James Edwards dies | work=The State | date=December 26, 2014 | access-date=December 26, 2014 | author=Click, Carolyn | archive-date=December 29, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141229011716/http://www.thestate.com/2014/12/26/3894147/former-gov-james-edwards-dies.html | url-status=dead }}

{{Reflist}}

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• [http://www.sciway.net/hist/governors/edwards.html SCIway Biography of James Burrows Edwards]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070930033316/http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.29fab9fb4add37305ddcbeeb501010a0/?vgnextoid=0a68224971c81010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD&vgnextchannel=e449a0ca9e3f1010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD NGA Biography of James Burrows Edwards]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928205052/http://www.theofficialschalloffame.com/inductee.html SC Hall of Fame]
• {{Find a Grave|140489144}}
• {{C-SPAN|29189}}

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Category:1927 births

Category:2014 deaths

Category:United States Navy personnel of World War II

Category:College of Charleston alumni

Category:Republican Party governors of South Carolina

Category:People from Mount Pleasant, South Carolina

Category:People from Hawthorne, Florida

Category:Reagan administration cabinet members

Category:Republican Party South Carolina state senators

Category:United States secretaries of energy

Category:University of Louisville alumni

Category:University of Pennsylvania alumni

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Category:United States Navy officers

Category:20th-century American dentists

Category:20th-century members of the South Carolina General Assembly