Joan Cavill Edwards (1918 – May 7, 2006) was a New Orleans jazz singer and well-known West Virginia-based philanthropist.
By age 11, she was singing on New Orleans radio station WWL, the start of a musical career that included filming movie shorts, singing with orchestras, recording with Clyde McCoy and his Kentucky Band, and performing in New York, Pittsburgh and Chicago.
While singing at Pittsburgh's William Penn Hotel, she met James F. Edwards, owner and CEO of National Mattress Company (Namaco), whom she married in 1937.
Joan and James Edwards donated more than $65 million to Marshall University and the Huntington community.
[3] Upon her death, the Joan C. Edwards Charitable Foundation was created in her name to help fund scholarships for medical school.