Civil rights

Former US Rep. Don Edwards, champion of civil rights, dies

Leonard Edwards said his father died Thursday night in his sleep at his home in Carmel.

"It was a fully productive life," Leonard Edwards said Friday. "You really can't ask for more than 100 years and all of the things he did, and he passed away peacefully, which is a blessing."

Tributes rolled in for the man who passionately fought for the rights of minorities and women, and helped create an urban wildlife refuge at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay Area.