Former South Carolina Governor Edwards dies at 87

[December 29, 2014]  (Reuters) - James Edwards, the first Republican elected governor of South Carolina since post-Civil War Reconstruction who also served in President Ronald Reagan's Cabinet, died on Friday at age 87, his family said.

Edwards' election in 1974 marked a key early moment in South Carolina's shift away from the Democratic Party as part of a broader embrace of the more conservative Republican Party across the South in the wake of the U.S. civil rights movement.

Republicans in South Carolina now control the governor's mansion as well as both U.S. Senate seats, and hold comfortable majorities in the state House and Senate.

Edwards was limited by state law to a single four-year term as governor. He later served two years as Secretary of Energy under Reagan. An oral surgeon, he went on to become president of the Medical University of South Carolina.

"Governor Edwards made an incredible mark on South Carolina history," state Republican Party Chairman Matt Moore said in a statement. "His legacy will live on through the countless lives he touched as governor, doctor and particularly as a man of faith."

Edwards died at his home in South Carolina on Friday morning of natural causes, said Ken Wingate, his son-in-law. He is survived by his wife Ann, son James Edwards Jr. and daughter Catharine Wingate.

(Reporting by Jonathan Kaminsky in New Orleans; Editing by Will Dunham)

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