CHAPEL HILL -- A fresh wave of disappointment hit Bobby Keaveney on Thursday after former presidential candidate John Edwards confirmed suspicions that he fathered a daughter with former campaign videographer Rielle Hunter.
It was a little more than two years ago that Keaveney, a Chapel Hill resident, attended the presidential campaign kickoff at Edwards' headquarters in the commercial and residential development Southern Village.
"I kind of supported him early on," said Keaveney, 57. "I'm disappointed in him."
The Edwardses have a home off Old Greensboro Road in Orange County and are familiar faces around Chapel Hill and Carrboro. Elizabeth Edwards opened a furniture store in Chapel Hill last year called Red Window. Her husband has dropped by to haul boxes and chat with vendors in neighboring storefronts.
Red Window was closed Thursday morning.
Loretta Edwards, 77, lives in a small home on Old Greensboro Road near the Edwards estate but is not related to John and Elizabeth Edwards. She said John Edwards' behavior was "stupid."
Loretta Edwards, who has lived in Orange County all her life, said Edwards' actions didn't match his campaign rhetoric. "If he ain't clean, how can he tell anybody else anything?" she asked.
Some in Chapel Hill and Carrboro said that they consider the details about Edwards' life a private matter but that he helped prolong the public's interest by telling lies that were later exposed.
At first, Edwards denied having an affair with Hunter. When he admitted the affair in a television interview, he denied being the father of Hunter's child.
If Edwards hadn't tried to deceive the public, said Travis Ray, a 27-year-old student from Greensboro, this might be over by now.
