BATON ROUGE (AP) — Louisiana's incoming first lady says she hopes to stress the importance of teaching music and art in each school.
Donna Edwards, who was an elementary school music teacher in Tangipahoa Parish until taking a sabbatical, tells The News-Star she is unsure if her advocacy will become a formal platform.
"I want to be a voice for education," said Edwards, who sings and plays the piano. "I'm not sure whether it will be some kind of formal platform, but I want to be an advocate, and I'm looking forward to highlighting the need for art and music in every school."
Edwards and her husband, former State Representative John Bel Edwards, are currently preparing for their January move into the Governor's mansion. John Bel Edwards will be inaugurated Jan. 11.
Edwards hit the campaign trail early to introduce her husband to the rest of the state outside his Tangipahoa Parish home, where she said folks around Amite started calling him governor shortly after winning his House seat eight years ago.
There was little money and only one staffer, true believer Mary-Patricia Wray, so the couple spent long hours on the road.
"I remember asking him, 'When are you going to get a driver?'" Donna Edwards said during a recent interview in the Old Governor's Mansion.
When asked about the moment she actually believed her husband could win, Edwards said, "We never really thought about not winning. If we had, we wouldn't have been able to put in that kind of work," she said.
Ironically, Edwards now said the thing she will miss most as first lady will be driving herself.
"Sometimes I like going for a drive by myself; getting my thoughts together," she said. "But they tell me I won't be able to do that."
Eighth-grade son John Miller will pick out his new room, and the couple's older daughters, Samantha and Sarah Ellen, plan to spend some time there, too.
"Samantha is getting married in May, so she wants to spend Jan. 11 until the wedding with us," Edwards said. "Sarah is a student at LSU, so I think she's most excited about the food options."
The family's two dogs, Bandit and Molly, also will move into the mansion.
Edwards said there might also be some less conventional additions.
"We've always had chickens, fluffy chickens, but they flew the coop during the campaign," she said. "Do you think we could have chickens there? I guess we're bringing some country to the city."
Edwards also says she plans to showcase the Governor's mansion to the public as much as possible.
"I'm really looking forward to opening up the home to the people, hosting people, bringing people together," she said. "It's their house, too.
