Cornelia Edwards (American Girl)

Cornelia Edwards (née Pitt) is the aunt of Samantha Parkington and wife of Gardner Edwards. She is the oldest daughter of four girls: Agnes, Agatha, and Alice. She is a pretty and dark-haired woman who likes laughing. (The illustrations done by Dan Andreasen gave her auburn hair; she is described in Samantha: The Gift as having chestnut-brown hair.) She is very active for a lady, and enjoys activities such as riding in automobiles, bicycling, and sledding--activities that Samantha does not initially think a proper adult lady would normally participate in. She is a good cook and even if she doesn't understand a process, works to be taught or guided. She does not shy away from the social needs of people. Cornelia is a very firm-minded lady, very socially forward, works for woman's suffrage as well as multiple other social changes, and believes that "newfangled" ideas and inventions are a step in the right direction for society. She initially frequently debates with Grandmary on the role of women and technology in the changing society for most of the series; this thus influences Samantha towards her own social change as well as Grandmary. Gardner is courting Cornelia from the beginning of the series; however, Samantha only refers to Cornelia as a "friend" to Gardner initially as she does not know the whole story of their courtship (and is not told as she is considered too young to know the particulars). She suspects there is more as she does ask if they will marry in the unabridged books. Samantha is initially slightly lukewarm to Cornelia, but fascinated by her personality; she briefly dislikes her for a while in Samantha's Surprise (or, more accurately, how she is the center of a change in holiday activities for her and Samantha feels everyone is ruining the holidays in order to please Cornelia). Samantha quickly warms back up to Cornelia after time together, hence her delight when Gard proposes to Cornelia on Christmas Day, and is one of her bridesmaids when they are married in the spring. After their marriage, Cornelia and Gardner move together into a brownstone across the street from Gramercy Park. Cornelia is very protective of her family; in The Curse of Ravenscourt she firmly says that Nellie, Jenny, and Bridget are her daughters without any qualifiers on their being adopted. She announces she is pregnant in The Curse of Ravenscourt and has her youngest child, a son named William Samuel Edwards, by the events of The Cry of the Loon.