Subject: Favorite Stories on the Life of Beau Biden - Update June 23
From: "Alexander S. Mackler" <[email-masked]>
To: "Owens Valerie Biden" <[email-masked]>, "Missy Owens" <[email-masked]>, "Hunter Biden" <[email-masked]>, "Casey Owens" <[email-masked]>, "Cuffe Owens" <[email-masked]>, "Hallie Biden" <[email-masked]>, "Ashley Biden" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2015 21:44:31 -0400

Please see attached compilation of the best stories, and let me know if you
have favorites that aren't included. We have all the clips in several
binders, but these were the highlights.
xo
asm

Favorite Stories on the Life of Beau BIDEN

*Table of Contents*

New York Times: Beau *BIDEN*, Vice President Joe *BIDEN’S* Son, Dies At 462

Wilmington News Journal: Beau *BIDEN*: A Family, A State Mourn A Tragic
Loss…5

CNN: Today We Are All *BIDENS*7

Wilmington News Journal: Remembering Beau *BIDEN*: ‘An Outstanding Man” 9

Daily Mail: Beau *BIDEN* Might Just Have Been The Best President America
Will Never Have15

Morning Joe (Transcript From The Show): Vice President *BIDEN *Lost The
North Star In His Life19

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Beau *BIDEN*, A Life Of Service Well-Lived:
Editorial23

Huffington Post: Why Beau *BIDEN’S* Passing Is Devastating To The Entire
Country23

Washington Post: From ‘Jill to ‘Mom’ – Inside Jill *BIDEN’S* Relationship
with Beau and Hunter28

Los Angeles Times: Vice President Joe *BIDEN*, In Grieving For Son Beau,
Shines As Family Patriarch31

Huffington Post: As Joe *BIDEN* Grieves, His Community Unites To Help Him
Heal35

Wilmington News Journal: Obama Mourns ‘Mighty Heart’ Of Beau *BIDEN*40

Daily Beast: He’s The Vice President’s Son, But At His Son’s Wake, He’s One
Of Us47

Washington Post: What It Was Like To Cover Beau *BIDEN’S* Funeral52

*New York Times*
<http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/31/us/politics/joseph-r-biden-iii-vice-presidents-son-beau-dies-at-46.html?_r=1>

*Beau BIDEN, Vice President Joe BIDEN’S Son, Dies At 46*

*By: Michael D. Shear / May 30, 2015*

WASHINGTON — Joseph R. *BIDEN* III, the former attorney general of Delaware
and the elder son of Vice President Joseph R. *BIDEN* Jr.
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/joseph_r_jr_biden/index.html?inline=nyt-per>,
died on Saturday in Bethesda, Md. He was 46.

The cause was brain cancer, his father said.

Mr. *BIDEN* had spent more than a week receiving treatment at the Walter
Reed National Military Medical Center, where he died.

In a statement Saturday night, the vice president said, “It is with broken
hearts that Hallie, Hunter, Ashley, Jill and I announce the passing of our
husband, brother and son, Beau, after he battled brain cancer with the same
integrity, courage and strength he demonstrated every day of his life.”

The statement went on to say, “In the words of the *BIDEN* family: Beau
*BIDEN* was, quite simply, the finest man any of us have ever known.”

In 2010, the younger Mr. *BIDEN*, known as Beau, had suffered what
officials described as a mild stroke. Three years later, he was admitted to
the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston after what
White House officials described at the time as “an episode of
disorientation and weakness.”

Officials said in 2013 that the doctors in Texas had removed a small lesion
from his brain.

Mr. *BIDEN’S* death is a second tragic loss for the vice president, whose
first wife, Neilia, and 13-month-old daughter, Naomi, were killed in a car
accident in 1972 when the station wagon they were driving in to go
Christmas shopping was hit by a tractor-trailer. Beau *BIDEN* and his
brother, Hunter, were also injured in the crash, but both survived.

A popular Democratic politician in his home state, who was known to be very
close to his father, Mr. *BIDEN* served two terms as Delaware’s top law
enforcement official before announcing last year that he would not run for
a third term so he could make a bid for governor in 2016.

“What started as a thought — a very persistent thought — has now become a
course of action that I wish to pursue,” Mr. *BIDEN* wrote in an open
letter to his constituents in April 2014.

As recently as late February, some Delaware politicians close to Mr. *BIDEN*
told news organizations that they still believed Mr. *BIDEN* planned to run
for governor. But Mr. *BIDEN’S* health had apparently declined in recent
weeks, and he was taken to Walter Reed this month.

Born on Feb. 3, 1969, in Wilmington, Del., Joseph Robinette *BIDEN* III was
an energetic politician whose broad smile mirrored that of his father. He
appeared to be a natural to follow his father’s path toward national
political success.

A lawyer by training, Mr. *BIDEN* joined the Delaware National Guard in
2003, serving as a major in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps. His unit
was deployed to Iraq in 2008, while his father was running for vice
president. He was also a Bronze Star recipient.

In a short, emotional speech introducing his father
<http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12913.html> at the 2008 Democratic
National Convention
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/d/democratic_national_convention/index.html?inline=nyt-org>
in Denver, Mr. *BIDEN* recalled the tragedy that had touched his family,
describing the moments after the crash.

“One of my earliest memories was being in that hospital, Dad always at our
side. We, not the Senate, were all he cared about,” Mr. *BIDEN* said. “He
decided not to take the oath of office. He said, ‘Delaware can get another
senator, but my boys can’t get another father.’ However, great men like Ted
Kennedy, Mike Mansfield, Hubert Humphrey — men who had been tested
themselves — convinced him to serve. So he was sworn in, in the hospital,
at my bedside.”

Many in Delaware expected Mr. *BIDEN* to run for his father’s Senate seat
after the 2008 election, but the younger *BIDEN*, who was elected attorney
general in 2006, declined, saying he was still needed in his state as he
pressed ahead on a major child molestation case his agency was pursuing
against a pediatrician.

“I have a duty to fulfill as attorney general, and the immediate need to
focus on a case of great consequence. And that is what I must do.”

He ran for re-election in 2010, serving a second term before deciding to
seek higher office.

Mr. *BIDEN*, who lived in Greenville, Del., is survived by his wife,
Hallie, and their children, Natalie, 11, and Hunter, 9; his parents, the
vice president and Dr. Jill *BIDEN*; his brother, Hunter; and his sister,
Ashley *BIDEN*.

President Obama and Michelle Obama visited the *BIDENS* on Sunday, spending
about a half-hour at the vice president’s residence at the United States
Naval Observatory in Washington.

Earlier, the president said in a statement that he was grieving for the
vice president and his family. “For all that Beau *BIDEN* achieved in his
life, nothing made him prouder, nothing made him happier, nothing claimed a
fuller focus of his love and devotion than his family,” Mr. Obama said.
“Just like his dad.”

In an outpouring of sympathy, many people on Twitter posted links to the
vice president’s graduation speech at Yale University in May. Mr. *BIDEN*
spoke at length about the tragedies he had endured and the ways they had
made him stronger.

“Six weeks after my election, my whole world was altered forever,” he said,
referring to his election to the Senate in 1972 and the crash that killed
his wife and infant daughter. He said he had found redemption by focusing
on his sons.

“I can remember my mother, a sweet lady, looking at me after we left the
hospital and saying, ‘Joey, out of everything terrible that happens to you,
something good will come if you look hard enough for it,’ ” Mr. *BIDEN*
told the Yale graduates. “She was right.”

Mr. *BIDEN* reflected on his decision to travel home to Delaware each night
even as he served in the Senate. Some said it suggested a lack of ambition,
he noted, an indication that he was not serious about success as a national
politician.

“But looking back on it,” Mr. *BIDEN* said, “the truth be told, the real
reason I went home every night was that I needed my children more than they
needed me.”

In a statement Sunday morning, Secretary of State John Kerry quoted the
vice president as once saying that after losing a loved one, “there is a
black hole you feel in your chest, like you’re being sucked back into it.”
But Mr. Kerry added that “Joe has also said there comes a day ‘when the
thought of your son or daughter, or your husband or wife, brings a smile to
your lips before it brings a tear to your eyes.’ ”

“As usual,” Mr. Kerry wrote, “Joe said it better than anyone else could.”

*Wilmington News Journal*
<http://www.delawareonline.com/story/opinion/editorials/2015/05/31/beau-biden-family-state-mourn-tragic-loss/28268409/>

*Beau BIDEN: A Family, A State Mourn A Tragic Loss*

*By: Editorial Board / May 31, 2015*

We offer our condolences to Beau *BIDEN’S* wife, Hallie, and their two
children, to his parents, Vice President and Dr. *BIDEN*, and his entire
family on their loss. Only they will know the full weight of this tragedy.
The best the rest of us can do is offer our prayers and sympathy.

Yet Delaware too has lost a great deal with Beau *BIDEN’S* death. It has
lost a popular and successful politician and a dedicated public servant,
one who served his state as attorney general for two terms and who served
his nation as a National Guard officer on duty with his unit in Iraq.

Mr. *BIDEN’S* term as Delaware’s attorney general will be remembered for,
among other things, three accomplishments. The first was the work, often
behind the scenes, to mobilize forces against and government attention to
the drug violence in Wilmington and surrounding areas. He often acted as an
intermediary among various government agencies, working for compromises and
developing action plans. As attorney general, he was often at the scenes of
shootings, talking to residents and working with officials to coordinate
investigations and prosecutions.

One of his better-known efforts was his office’s pursuit of child abusers
and child pornographers. He set up special units and brought technology to
track the child pornography rings flourishing on the Internet.

His office also successfully prosecuted the notorious child abuser Dr. Earl
Bradley. That was a long and difficult prosecution, one involving special
circumstances, for example the extraordinary number of young victims. The
challenge was to build a successful prosecution without revictimizing the
young children and at the same time thoroughly cover every point of law so
that the effort would not be thrown out of court on a technicality.

Mr. *BIDEN* also went against the legal, financial and political
establishments to pursue justice in the aftermath of the Great Recession.
He pressed banks and other financial institutions to make good on losses
suffered by innocent investors and homeowners who suffered because of
questionable mortgage-backed securities. He fought in court for
restitution. It was a challenge and he received push back from local and
national financial institutions as well as local and national officials who
would have preferred to let the matter die.

Mr. *BIDEN’S* persistence, often without support from other attorneys
general, led to large financial settlements for Delaware investors,
homeowners and the state. His efforts were not always successful, but the
return alleviated some of the harm done and secured some semblance of
justice when other authorities were willing to keep their eyes closed.

Mr. *BIDEN’S* death at 46, thus, is both a personal loss for his family and
friends and a public one for the residents of Delaware.

We extend our sympathies to them at this sad moment.

*CNN* <http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/31/opinions/begala-beau-biden/>

*Commentary: Today We Are All BIDENS*

*By: Paul Begala / May 31, 2015*

(CNN)  In his moving tribute to Beau *BIDEN*, President Barack Obama wrote,
“The *BIDENS* have more family than they know.” He is right. More family
than they could possibly know. Today, we are all *BIDENS*.

“Life breaks us all,” Hemingway said. “But some emerge stronger at the
broken places.”

Joe *BIDEN* is such a man. He was not merely touched by tragedy, he was
coldcocked by it. Among the youngest people ever to win election to the
Senate, before he could be sworn in, he was laid low. Cruel fate took his
wife and daughter and landed both his boys in the hospital, grievously
injured.

Somehow Joe *BIDEN* rose to take that oath, then rose to near-universal
respect in the Senate – all the while commuting four hours every single day
so he could rise and shine with his boys each morning and kiss them
goodnight each evening.

It seems unimaginably, heartbreakingly cruel that one of those bedridden
*BIDEN* boys has been taken in his prime.

Beau *BIDEN* grew to serve his country in war, his state in office and his
family with his every breath. I did not know him well, but that never
stopped Beau from greeting me with a hug, a knowing joke, a caring thought.
Whatever “it” is, Beau had it by the bushel: brains, courage, talent – and
especially compassion. And he came by those gifts honestly.

It is a mystery why some people, when shattered, not only grow stronger;
they grow more compassionate. Others harden their hearts, and who could
blame them?

But Joe *BIDEN* and his boys opened theirs. Compassion. It means literally
to suffer with. Somehow Joe *BIDEN* has – despite his pain or could it be
because of it? – spent decades helping others by shouldering a bit of their
burden.

Speaking to the families of fallen military service members in 2012, Vice
President *BIDEN* spoke beautifully from his own bitter experience: “There
will come a day,” he told those heartbroken families, “I promise you, and
your parents as well – when the thought of your son or daughter or your
husband or wife brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your
eye. It will happen.”

Everyone who knows Joe *BIDEN* knows his kinship with the crushed. He
shares his scars with them; he preaches from his pain. He has given
transfusions of courage to countless heartbroken families.

Beau had that same quality. He enlisted in the Army, earned a Bronze Star
and served as Delaware’s attorney general. As attorney general, he was
drawn to protect the vulnerable. He created a Child Predator Task Force,
winning 214 convictions against those who devastate families and prey upon
defenseless kids. He also led on the issue of bullying, not the typical
fare of swashbuckling prosecutors. In his constant commitment to the
powerless, Beau echoed his powerful father.

How can it be that Joe *BIDEN* once more has to bury a child? As he
prepares to, so many who love him turn to Scripture. Others to Yeats. Me, I
keep hearing a favorite hymn that my fellow Catholic Joe *BIDEN* has cited
numerous times:

“And He will raise you up on eagles’ wings

Bear you on the breath of dawn

Make you to shine like the sun

And hold you in the palm of His hand.”

In life, Beau shone like the sun. In death, may God hold him in the palm of
his hand.

*Wilmington News Journal*
<http://www.delawareonline.com/story/opinion/editorials/2015/05/31/beau-biden-family-state-mourn-tragic-loss/28268409/>

*Remembering Beau BIDEN: ‘An Outstanding Man’*

*By: Maureen Milford and Jonathan Starkey / May 31, 2015*

Former Delaware Attorney General Beau *BIDEN* might have been the son of a
larger-than-life politician, but in his own way he was a quiet force of
nature, say those who knew him best.

“If his last name wasn’t *BIDEN* or if his father wasn’t (Vice President)
Joe *BIDEN*, he still would have been an outstanding man,” said attorney
Claire DeMatteis, who has known *BIDEN* since he was a teenager.

To long-time friends, *BIDEN* had superior qualities only those closest to
him got to see. He eschewed privilege that came with his name. Many didn’t
know the true Beau because he was intensely private, especially for a
leading political figure. They describe a man of great humility who
dedicated his public service work to the less fortunate. And *BIDEN*, 46,
was a dedicated family man and a steadfast friend, they say.

*BIDEN*, who died Saturday, was diagnosed in August 2013 with brain cancer,
and underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatment that fall. He decided
not to seek a third term as Delaware Attorney General in November. His
cancer returned in the spring and he sought treatment at Walter Reed
National Military Medical Center in May, according to the vice president’s
office.

Looking back on * BIDEN’S* short life, people close to him remembered his
kindness.

“That was the most striking thing about him. He was just innately kind. He
had a complete aversion to ever hurting anyone’s feelings.”

Terry Wright, who worked for Joe *BIDEN* as a special assistant

“That was the most striking thing about him. He was just innately kind. He
had a complete aversion to ever hurting anyone’s feelings,” said Terry
Wright, who worked for Joe *BIDEN* as a special assistant and has known
Beau since 1982. “Politics is a rough business and Beau just never wanted
to hurt people’s feelings.”

Friend Patrick Allen, who worked on Joe *BIDEN’S* 2002 re-election campaign
for the Senate, said Beau would often go to the East Side of Wilmington at
the end of a long day to knock on doors and pass out campaign literature.

“We would stay there until 1 or 2 in the morning talking about their
problems,” Allen said. “He would be deeply affected. You could see the
weight on his shoulders. I really think that’s why he ran for attorney
general.”

State prosecutor Kathleen Jennings, who worked with *BIDEN* and has known
him for years, said she saw that empathy first hand a few years ago. She
recalled that *BIDEN* would often quietly walk city neighborhoods after
there had been a shooting. He would talk to the victims’ families and meet
with neighbors. And he would listen.

One day when it was particularly cold and misty, Jennings decided to visit
*BIDEN*.

“It’s a moment I will never forget for the rest of my life,” the prosecutor
said. “He had such pain in his face — he was experiencing their pain. I
thought to myself, ‘He really feels this personally.’ It was hard on him.
To me, that was the single most revealing thing about him.”

Michael Hochman, who was *BIDEN’S* roommate at the University of
Pennsylvania and considers *BIDEN* his best friend, said “he couldn’t do
enough for anybody.”

“He gave everything he had all the time,” Hochman said.

To DeMatteis, *BIDEN* “always saw the good in everybody.”

Dan Logan, who met * BIDEN* in 1996 when he was in high school and
volunteered to work Joe *BIDEN’S* U.S. Senate campaign, had an accident two
years later that left Logan in the hospital for weeks.

“Beau was one of the first to visit,” Logan said. “He didn’t know what kind
of magazines to buy me so he essentially bought the whole rack. He had a
solid 40 of them. It’s still one of my very fond memories, just him walking
in with a pile of magazines.”

Added to his quality was a true humility, friends say. They recalled that
*BIDEN* would always introduce himself as just “Beau.”

“He wasn’t one to toot his own horn,” Jennings said.

A deeply private person, *BIDEN* would sometimes be inundated with people
approaching him after he became known nationally, said friend Rob Buccini,
who has known *BIDEN* since they were in second grade at Wilmington Friends
School.

“It’s exhausting,” Buccini said. “But he never wanted to come across as
being short with them.”

Joe Conaway, the former Sussex County administrator and friend to Joe
*BIDEN*, first met Beau and his brother, Hunter, when they would visit his
Bridgeville home with the now-vice president in the mid-1970s. As Beau
embarked on his own political career in late 2005, he visited Conaway, sat
on his living room floor and sought advice, Conaway remembered on Sunday.

“Whether he got elected or not, he was a man you could be proud of,”
Conaway said.

Rhett Ruggerio, the Democratic operative and Dover lobbyist, knew Beau
*BIDEN* in high school, when Ruggerio attended St. Elizabeth and *BIDEN*
was at Archmere Academy.

“He was definitely the kid you knew was special, in the sense that he was
smart, good-looking,” Ruggerio said. “But he had a good personality. He
didn’t have the arrogance that sometimes you see. Partly that was the
reason everybody was attracted to him.”

Hand in hand with his humility went integrity, friends said. Beau refused
to be handed anything because of his famous name.

Buccini recalled the time the two were driving home from college in upstate
New York. When they got near Scranton, Pa., *BIDEN* got stopped for
speeding, Buccini said. When the police officer saw * BIDEN’S* name, the
officer wanted to give *BIDEN* a warning because he admired Sen. *BIDEN’S*
support of law enforcement.

“He made the police officer give him a ticket,” Buccini said.

“I’ve known him since second grade and he never once flaunted it,” Buccini
said. “He never, never acted with an air of entitlement. Because of who he
was, he worked harder to be humble.”

Margaret Aitken, who has known *BIDEN* since they were freshmen at Archmere
Academy, said there was a time when a group of friends would go to a local
restaurant for lunch. A couple years ago, after Joe *BIDEN* became vice
president, Aitken ran into one of the waitresses at the restaurant.

“She said: “Egg salad was Joe *BIDEN’S* son!” Aitken said. “He was just a
regular guy having lunch with his friends.”

For *BIDEN* it was important to earn everything he got, said Wright, who
has known *BIDEN* since 1982 and worked for Joe *BIDEN* as a special
assistant.

“He wanted to run for office. He didn’t want to be appointed,” Wright said.
“He was very firm about that.”

After the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, while so many people talked
about doing something for the country, *BIDEN* actually did it, Aitken and
Buccini said. That was when he joined the Delaware National Guard.

“I would not have had the courage to do that,” Aitken said.

Later, Beau served time in Iraq.

“He felt it was his obligation,” Buccini said. “He never wanted to be given
a pass because of lineage.”

While his service in the military showed courage, his true bravery was
visible during his illness, friends said.

“I swear to God, he never once complained about his illness,” Buccini said.
“He would say, ‘It’s all good. Give me two weeks, I’m better.’ He never,
ever complained. He never felt badly for himself.”

*BIDEN* did not want to burden anyone, Hochman said.

“He never wanted anyone to worry about him,” Hochman said. “I honestly
believe he meant it when he said, ‘In two weeks, I’ll be fine.’ “

*BIDEN* allowed only his closest friends to observe his dry wit.

“He always had a twinkle in his eye. He had perfect comedic timing, not
only delivering a punch line but in terms of knowing when people needed to
laugh,” Hochman said.

Allen recalled *BIDEN* would call him up and ask, “Did you go to church
this morning?” knowing Allen hadn’t been there.

“Then he’d ask me about the sermon,” Allen said.

Jim Westhoff was all but assured defeat in a 2010 campaign for state
representative when he bumped into *BIDEN* at the Democratic Jamboree.
Westhoff’s 15-year-old son, tiring of political events, suggested he should
be getting paid to tag along. *BIDEN* related, Westhoff said.

“That’s genius,” * BIDEN* responded. “Just think of the money I could have
made if I came up with the same idea.”

One of the truest measures of the man was that he never lost a friend,
Buccini said.

“That tells you everything about him,” Buccini said.

Ian McConnel worked as *BIDEN’S* chief deputy attorney general, his
second-in-command at the Justice Department, from 2012 to 2014.

The two became close friends as McConnel rose, over more than six years, to
become one of *BIDEN’S* most trusted advisers from a deputy position in the
consumer protection division.

“He believed in me in a way that was unusual,” McConnel said Sunday. “He
really took a risk in promoting me and giving me an opportunity to serve. I
worked very hard to repay that trust. We became very good friends.”

But the hallmark of the man was devotion to family.

“He was honestly a great dad,” McConnel said. “He was the type of father
that was present with his children. When there was a concern or issue, he
was there with them in a way that was very connected and thoughtful.”

“Family came first,” Buccini said.

“Family was the beginning, middle and end for him,” Aitken said.

Allen saw *BIDEN’S* dedication this year when both their sons played
basketball together on St. Joseph on the Brandywine.

“Beau made every game,” Allen said. “He knew every kid’s name and rooted as
hard for them as he did for his own sons.”

And *BIDEN* truly loved his father, DeMatteis said.

“Beau, never wanted to be anything other than Joe *BIDEN’S* son. He knew
from a very young age that family is everything,” DeMatteis said.

*BIDEN*, his wife Hallie and children Natalie and Hunter lived for months
in his parents’ Greenville home while their new home was being renovated.

Robert Hoopes, who had known Beau *BIDEN* since grade school at Wilmington
Friends, discussed the living arrangement with *BIDEN* over lunch at
Purebread Deli in Greenville a couple years back. The former attorney
general went on about “how wonderful it was” for the whole family to be
living under the same roof, Hoopes said.

“It was a very natural moment,” Hoopes said. “That’s the way he was, that’s
the way his father is. Being together as family was the most important
thing for him. That moment was not lost on him.”

But *BIDEN* was definitely a different man that his dad, friends say.
Wright said that was even evident in their speaking styles.

“Joe wants to inspire,” Wright said. “Beau would rather draw them in.”

Friends say *BIDEN* quietly accomplished so much in his 46 years. But for
some it wasn’t until they saw his collection of ball caps from various
places he’d been campaigning, on military assignments and even vacation
that they finally understood everywhere he’s been and what he’d done.

“For people who don’t know him, they should know what a tremendous person
he was as a friend, as a father, as a husband and as a statesman,” Hochman
said. “He was the best man I’ve ever known.’

*Daily Mail*
<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3105896/PIERS-MORGAN-Beau-Biden-just-best-President-America-never-have.html>

*Beau BIDEN Might Just Have Been The Best President American Will Never
Have*

*By: Piers Morgan / June 1, 2015*

When famous people die these days, there is an irritating modern tendency
towards hyperbole.

Everyone even remotely well known who passes away is instantly,
breathlessly propelled via social media into the once rarefied stratosphere
of ‘great’ or ‘finest’. Insincere platitudes of alarming extravagance rain
down on the heads of often thoroughly undeserving individuals.

Sometimes, though, it is deserved.

‘Beau *BIDEN* was quite simply the finest man any of us has ever known,’
said Vice President Joe *BIDEN* about his son, who has died from brain
cancer aged 46.

Beau *BIDEN* watches proudly in 2009 as father is sworn in

I knew Beau well, interviewing him numerous times when I worked for CNN,
and also interviewing his step-mother Jill, about him.

And I agree with his father. It’s hard to imagine a finer man.

Beau carried with him a pride, passion, class and elegance that made you
sit up and take notice, as the world discovered when he made that
stirringly emotional, heartfelt address about his dad to the Democratic
Convention in 2008.

Like Joe, he was very smart, engagingly charming, direct and amusing.

There was also a soulfulness to him, born from the horrific car accident in
1972 that blighted the *BIDEN* family.

Beau was not yet four years old at the time.

His mother Neilia and baby sister Naomi were both killed.

He and his younger brother Hunter miraculously survived.

Joe, who was not in the car, became a single parent to two little boys aged
30 just as he was about to become a Senator.

Beau carried with him a pride, passion, class and elegance that made you
sit up and take notice, as the world discovered when he made that
stirringly emotional, heartfelt address about his dad to the Democratic
Convention in 2008

This kind of seismic, devastating event can make or break a family.

It made the *BIDENS*.

Beau earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania, and a
law degree at Syracuse University College of Law.

He became an excellent young prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s office in
Philadelphia for nearly a decade, noted for going after child sex abusers,
gaining 180 convictions.

He also targeted banks and mortgage lenders for their roles in perpetrating
crooked loans.

And, during a period acting as an interim legal adviser for the Department
of Justice, he worked tirelessly to establish the rule of law in
post-Kosovo.

He was appointed Attorney General of Delaware, where he continued to
campaign for the powerless, and in particular the victims of child abuse.

As if this all wasn’t enough, Beau was a major in the Delaware National
Guard, and served in the Iraq war for which he was awarded the Bronze Star.

Recently, he announced his intention to run for Governor in 2016.

Who knows where his journey may have ended?

Many think it could have been the White House.

He brought a common sense and clarity, even to the most contentious debate.

I once hosted a volatile CNN townhall show about America’s gun culture.

‘We need an assault weapons ban, tighter background checks and a renewed
focus on mental health,’ Beau said firmly, cutting through a lot of the
pointless partisan noise being spouted by other guests.

‘I was assigned an M-16 for most of my military career. These weapons are
designed for battlefields not for our cities and communities.

‘It’s wrong that a paranoid schizophrenic can walk out of their diagnosis
with their psychiatrist and go to Wal-Mart and buy a gun.’

I was impressed with both the searing simplicity of his argument and his
courage in standing up to the powerful gun lobby, when such a position can
be so politically damaging.

But I shouldn’t have been surprised.

Beau spent his entire life battling on behalf of the vulnerable, and those
less fortunate.

His driving force was correcting injustice and making America and the world
a better, safer place.

He was also fiercely protective of his father, of whom he was incredibly
proud.

‘My dad is the most loyal person you could ever wish to have by your side,’
he told me once, ‘the President is lucky to have him.’

When I interviewed Jill *BIDEN* at Camp Pendleton in California two years
ago, she spoke about the year Beau spent in Iraq – away from his wife
Hallie and their two kids, Natalie and Hunter.

‘He has two small children and it was very hard when he missed their
birthdays, Thanksgiving and Christmas. We’d look down the table and Beau
wasn’t there and it created an empty space in your heart.’

Then I asked her about the day he finally came home.

‘It was a wonderful day. His children wouldn’t let go of his clothing. They
were just hanging onto his legs and didn’t want to let go of him. It was
joyous.’

Those children will never see their dad again. There will be no more joyous
tugs of his leg.

As the *BIDEN* family mourns his loss, we should all mourn with them.

Because amid the sleaze and corruption that envelops so many aspects of
modern life, particularly in the seething cesspit of current Washington
politics, Beau *BIDEN* was a shining beacon of decency, standards, morality
and ethics.

He stood for the values that made America the greatest superpower in the
world: hard work, family, friendship, ambition, a deep-rooted sense of
patriotism and a burning, heartfelt desire to make his life decent and
worthwhile.

Beau was a loving, caring father; a devoted, faithful husband; a loyal son;
a trusted friend; a brave soldier; and a dedicated public servant.

As Joe said: ‘Beau embodied my father’s saying that a parent knows success
when his child turns out better than he did.’

Beau *BIDEN* was a great American.

He was also the kind of man we should all aspire to be.

*Morning Joe*
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/01/morning-joe-beau-biden-tribute_n_7483816.html>*
(Transcript From The Show)*

*Vice President BIDEN Lost The North Star In His Life *

*By: Joe Scarborough / June 1, 2015*

*“*My favorite poet was Escalus. He once wrote–even in our sleep, pain
which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until in our own
despair against our will comes wisdom through the awful grace of god.”

The awful grace of god.

That was Robert Kennedy, April 4, 1968, speaking after the sudden and
shocking assassination of Martin Luther King.

But he found those words when he was drowning in his open sea of grief from
a book his sister-in-law, Jacqueline Kennedy gave him months after the loss
of President Kennedy who was his brother, his boss and the North Star in
his life.

Saturday night, Vice President Joe *BIDEN* lost the North Star in his life:
his son, Beau at the age of forty-six.

In his too short life, Beau accomplished so many things. He served two
terms as Attorney General of his state. He was a member of the
Delaware National Guard where he deployed to Iraq in 2009 and he
didn't just get deployed. He was awarded the Bronze Star. Beau also had the
distinction of being the first child of a President or Vice President
to serve in combat zones since Dwight Eisenhower’s own son went to war in
Korea.

Beau could have run for the senate in 2010 and he would have won, but he
chose instead to continue as a local prosecutor and he said because he
needed to do that because he needed keep fighting in his state on a case
that involved too many abused children. Beau said, “I have a duty
to fulfill as Attorney General and the immediate need to focus on a case of
great consequence. And that is what I must do.”

But above all, Beau *BIDEN* was a family man. That’s what his duty was. He
was a father, he was a husband, he was a son. He is survived by his
wife, their two children, a daughter Natalie who is eleven and a son Hunter
just nine years old.

The total devotion to family is an example Beau learned at the feet of his
father. To know the story of Joe *BIDEN* is to know the story of the whole
family of the *BIDENS*, told so well by the late Richard Cramer in his
book *What
it Takes*, a book that led me to tears so many times and so many times
those tears were from what happened in Joe *BIDEN’S* life and how Joe
*BIDEN* responded.

Cramer tells of how tragedy first struck *BIDEN’S* young family weeks after
he was elected to senate at the age of 29. His wife, two sons and an
infant daughter were in the car going Christmas shopping when a tractor
trailer plowed into them. As Cramer wrote, “The car was so bad, they didn't
know who she was until they saw the *BIDEN* brochures fluttering above in
the trees.”

That awful grace of God that Kennedy’s Greek poet spoke of the night Martin
Luther King was killed provided a moment of grace and empathy to Joe *BIDEN* so
many years later when the Vice President was speaking to military families
who had lost their loved ones.

“I was down in Washington hiring my staff and I got a phone call saying
that my family had been in an accident. And just like you guys know by the
tone of the phone call, you just knew, didn't you. You knew when they
walked up the path, you knew when the call came, you knew, you just
felt this in your bones something bad happened. And I knew. I don't know
how I knew.  But the call said my wife was dead, my daughter was dead,
and wasn't sure how my sons were gonna make it.”

Beau *BIDEN* was one of those sons, of course, he was all cut up, broken
bones. He had to be put in traction, and his little brother, Hunter, had a
concussion, possibly permanent damage. Their dad, well, he had just been
elected to the Senate, but the Senate didn't mean a damn thing to him
anymore. He wouldn't leave that hospital for weeks except at night.

“The hospital was in a tough neighborhood,” Cramer wrote, “bad streets and
dark. If the boys could sleep, Joe and his brother, Jimmy, would walk those
streets half the night, they would tell the nurses they were going out for
pizza, but they wouldn't eat. They didn't even talk. The sound was their
shoes on grit or broken glass. Joe was hoping someone would jump out in
front of the alley, come at him. He would have killed the guy, he was
looking for a fight. There was no place for his rage. Sometimes he thought
it would be easier if he were the only one left. Then he could kill
himself. But it was the boys that kept him alive.”

*BIDEN* talked about these days at the wake for Massachusetts Senator Ted
Kennedy in 2009.

“When my wife and daughter were killed in an automobile accident and my two
boys were very badly injured and hospitalized, one of them is with me
here today, Hunter, the other is in Iraq, I got a call from your dad. And I
didn't know your dad too well. I just met him that one time. He was the
prod who convinced me to go to the senate because I had told my Governor
after that election, the Governor elect, to be precise my brother did,
that we would appoint someone else. I didn't want to go to the Senate. And
it was your brother who came to see me to tell me that I owed it to my
deceased wife and children at least to be sworn in and stay for at least
six months. And when I got to the Senate, he would literally come by once
or twice a week to my office in the middle of the afternoon. And I didn't
want to be there. I wanted to get the hell home. I didn't want to be
around.”

And again, he stayed around. Because Ted Kennedy was touched by that awful
grace of God which touched Joe *BIDEN*, which has touched so many people
since. One of those people of course was Beau. At the 2008 Democrat
National Convention, it was Beau *BIDEN* who told that same story but from
his perspective as a child who was just shy of four years old.

“One of my earliest memories was being in that hospital, my dad always at
our side. We, my brother and I, not the Senate, were all that he
cared about. He decided not to take the oath of office. He said then
Delaware can get another senator, but my boys can't get another
father. However, great men like Ted Kennedy, Mike Mansfield, Hubert
Humphrey, men who had been tested in their own right, convinced him to
serve. He was sworn in in the hospital at my bedside.”

And of course they eventually left the hospital, they grew up and
thrived. And Joe *BIDEN* stayed in the Senate. He thrived as well. He got
married again, or as Joe and the boys said, we got married. They had a
daughter, and Joe ran for the White House. Remaking of Camelot in
the backyard in Delaware. But that campaign didn’t work out. Joe would
learn later that it was all in God's plan.

Because in February of 1988, Joe suffered a brain aneurysm he believes he
would have otherwise ignored on the campaign trail. Police escort raced him
from Delaware down to Walter Reed Army medical center in Washington and the
family piled into the cars. Beau would ride up front with the cops, Jill
would ride in the ambulance with Joe. Maryland cops were supposed to meet
them, but they never showed up. Deep into Maryland, Delaware cops turned to
Beau and said, “Where are we going?” Beau had a wind breaker on and ball
cap. He must have looked like a federal S.W.A.T. guy. Beau had just turned
19.

They arrived at Walter Reed, and the surgeon told them they had no time to
waste. They had to cut open the skull and operate and they said the chances
are no more than 50/50. A priest came into give him his last rights and Joe
asked to see the *BIDENS* one more time. He didn’t have to tell the boys
that he loved them after all, or ask them to take care of each other. They
knew that stuff. But he wanted them to know what he'd found out 15 years
before. They would go on. And so would Joe *BIDEN*.

He survived that dangerous operation in 1988. He went on to spend another
two decades in the Senate where he became a pillar of the Capitol. And on
to the Vice Presidency where he left his mark as one of…”

*Cleveland Plain Dealer*
<http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/06/beau_biden_a_life_of_service_w.html>

*Beau BIDEN, a life of service well-lived: Editorial*

*By: **Editorial Board*
<http://connect.cleveland.com/staff/neomgeditorial/posts.html>* / June 03,
2015 *

The death a few days ago of Beau *BIDEN*, eldest son of Vice President Joe
*BIDEN*, might be considered the latest tragedy in a life afflicted with
tragedy. Just weeks after Joe *BIDEN’S* improbable 1972 Senate election at
age 29 (his birthday fell before he would take office), *BIDEN’S* wife
Neilia and one-year-old daughter Naomi were killed in a car crash that also
seriously injured three-year-old Beau and younger brother Hunter.

Beau *BIDEN* -- technically, Joe Jr. -- by contrast, seemed blessed. A
captain with the Delaware Army National Guard, he survived a tour of duty
in Iraq in 2008-2009. He was completing the second of two terms as Delaware
attorney-general. He had a wife and two children and was planning a run for
governor next year.

Five years ago, Beau survived a mild stroke. Two years ago, he was
diagnosed with brain cancer but beat it into remission. His health problems
were largely kept quiet.

The fatal return of Beau *BIDEN’S* brain cancer earlier this year was
confirmed only after Beau died Saturday, with his father and the rest of
his family with him at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in
Maryland.

The vice president's son could have waged his final medical battle at any
hospital in the land. He chose to wage it with his brothers and sisters in
arms. A senator's son could have stayed out of Iraq. Beau *BIDEN* went.

This speaks to the qualities of the man, in life and, now, in death.

*Huffington Post
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/erin-mcpike/why-beau-bidens-passing-is-devastating-to-country_b_7512850.html>*

*Why Beau BIDEN’S Passing is Devastating To The Entire Country*

*By: Erin McPike / June 4, 2015 *

I am really sad about Beau *BIDEN’S* death. Really, really sad.

A handful of news organizations have noted the outpouring of support for
the *BIDEN* family coming from all over the country since the announcement
Saturday night, much of it focused on the unfathomable grief Vice President
*BIDEN* must be experiencing -- not only because of his history of family
tragedy, but because Beau was the quintessential, perfect first-born son he
adored.

I, too, feel awful for the vice president. But the reason I'm so busted up
about this is because I think Beau's passing is a devastating loss for the
entire country, for many of the reasons why his father basically worshipped
him.

Allow me to get a little political.

My favorite part of being a political reporter is watching stars rise.
Believing in unlimited potential is part of the American way, and Beau had
it.

It's not just how he lived his life as a doting family man and a devout
Catholic. And it's not just his CV: University of Pennsylvania graduate,
law school graduate, federal prosecutor, state attorney general going after
child abuse, soldier in Iraq. That, of course, is as perfect as
presidential material can possibly get.

Add to that his spark, genuineness, earnestness and unconditional love for
public service. I firmly believe the pendulum swing in American politics is
real, and I believed that in some swing toward the Democrats in the future,
Beau would be president. That's how I'm going to remember him.

Joe *BIDEN* has said success is seeing your children turn out better, and
that he knows he succeeded. So, for Joe's sake, let's all believe Beau
would go a little farther, too.

In 2009, two days before the Inauguration, several friends and I gathered
for brunch at an apartment in Georgetown overlooking the Holy Trinity
Catholic Church knowing the *BIDEN* family and other dignitaries were there
for Sunday morning services in honor of the week's events.

I shouted hello at Beau when he got out of the motorcade carrying his son.

"That has to be a reporter, because no one knows who I am," he said,
laughing emphatically to his wife and brother.

I shouted back my name and said I worked for National Journal and let him
know I'd be covering him when he got to the Senate, because at the time,
nearly everyone in Washington figured he'd be headed there two years later.
He was tickled by the exchange.

It was nothing short of a bombshell months later when he announced he
wasn't going to run in 2010 because he wanted to finish what he started as
attorney general. A crew of Democratic officials I spoke to often and whom
I respect were livid about that and held it against him. For several years
they wouldn't entertain discussions about his future political career
because of this grudge. That surprised me.

In May of 2012, I ran into Beau at a Starbucks near the vice president's
residence and had a long talk with him about all of that. I asked him if he
thought he would run for Delaware Sen. Tom Carper's seat when he retired
but figured he might be interested in running for governor, which he said
he was.

He said to me that day, "I'll do one of them," but he was leaning toward a
future gubernatorial race because he was disappointed in the Senate.

I'll never forget his exact words: "I grew up in the Senate. I love the
smell of the Russell building." But as he talked to me, he was scratching
his head in disbelief about how dysfunctional the Senate had become and
said he had friends in the Senate who were really unhappy because they were
unable to do anything, and that really bothered him. (Senators, please take
note and fix that for him.)

The way he talked about it made it clear he loved public service with every
bone in his body. Reporters can tell when they're hearing an ambitious
dance from a politician, and what Beau said was not that. Everything he
said was real, honest and earnest. Quite frankly, I was mesmerized.

As close as he was to his father, he wanted to chart his own course, which
he did with his service in the National Guard and would have done as the
almost-certain next governor of Delaware. You have to respect that kind of
individualism and leadership.

This spring, I made an appeal to one of his top political aides to come to
Delaware to spend some time with him and talk about the upcoming governor's
race, because I'd been itching to write a long-form profile of him for a
long time. We planned to do it late this summer or early fall after the
governor's race got off the ground. This week I felt it was necessary to
find some way to write part of what I was planning.

Now I want to use this opportunity to make a bigger point in honor of Beau.

The best part of American election cycles is what we're experiencing now:
When potential candidates explore the possibility of leadership and
greatness. That's when the best stories are told and it's what makes us
love what government can achieve for everyone. But one executive producer I
worked for told me recently that attitude is Pollyannish.

Survey the news coverage of all of the major candidates before they even
entered the presidential race this year. It's remarkably cutting. It wasn't
always like that. When people offer themselves up for public office, they
deserve some real respect at the outset.

But the way we live now is chasing special people like Beau *BIDEN* away
from the system. Beau himself wasn't going anywhere. He was dedicated to
it. The next time someone like him wants to finish a job in a state office,
I hope the same officials who were miffed he didn't head to the Senate in
their timeframe will be more forgiving.

As for the media, the problem goes way beyond ungodly intrusive opposition
research (which at appropriate times is a very good and necessary thing to
weed out bad guys) and even mainstream snark. We are influencing society to
buy into a series of unbelievable nitpicks: Boring. Short. Too polished.
Sometimes, as I heard about Beau occasionally, you might even hear too
perfect.

These days, if a candidate for office isn't a lightning rod or the most
electrifying person on Earth or perfectly imperfect, they don't pass muster
for the press.

I often get that when I write about Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman, whom
I believe deserves substantial coverage for the work he does and the way he
conducts himself. One editor recently challenged me on this: "Don't you
think you might be drawn to him because you're from Ohio, too?"

Some, sure. But that's not all. When I wrote about former Indiana Gov.
Mitch Daniels as he was gearing up for a 2012 presidential bid that
ultimately didn't happen, I heard similar complaints. Too short, too
boring, not this, not that.

Give me a break. Journalists absolutely must hold government officials
accountable, but what good are we doing anyone if we're just mean? How do
these absurd complaints have any bearing on what kind of leader either
Portman or Daniels would be? Those two Republicans are the kind of public
servants Beau was, and we need more people like them on both sides of the
aisle: officials who love government and want to do good things and work
hard to do them.

One more important point here, specifically for the Democratic Party.
There's a real growing fear in the party that there is not a great farm
team. It goes beyond the current lack of challengers to Hillary Clinton -
it's down the road.

I was heartbroken the day former Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords was
shot in 2010 and had first heard she died when I was driving along T Street
in northwest Washington. I pulled over and cried. She survived, but she no
longer holds office and likely won't again.

She is another great character in the same mold as Beau. On one run-in I
had with her in an elevator when she first got to Congress, she was so
excited to be talking to a political reporter who was a girl. She said she
had just read a study about how women legislators pass more bills than men,
she encouraged me to keep going and she was charmed that I was wearing
flip-flops and packing shoes.

Giffords was beloved on Capitol Hill, and she also was headed for great
things: Before she had settled on running for then-Arizona Republican Sen.
Jon Kyl's seat in 2012, she also considered the possibility of waiting to
run for governor in 2014.

She is still doing great things, but what a travesty. Imagine a world in
2017 in which she was a senator and Beau was a governor. In my mind Gabby
Giffords and Beau *BIDEN* were going to be giants in Democratic politics in
the post-Hillary era. I'm furious about the new reality.

This time, Beau's passing has put out some of my own fire for politics, at
least for the moment. So I hope this outpouring of support means something.
I hope there are great leaders who will pick up where he left off and I
hope the media gives them a real chance to succeed.

Let's make sure that is part of his legacy.

*Washington Post*
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/06/08/what-it-was-like-to-cover-beau-bidens-funeral/>

*From ‘Jill to ‘Mom’ – Inside Jill BIDEN’S Relationship with Beau and
Hunter*

*By: Carlos Lozada / June 4, 2015*

The death of Joseph “Beau” *BIDEN* III has refocused attention on the
personal tragedies that frame Vice President *BIDEN’S* political career —
from the death of wife Neilia and daughter Naomi in a car accident shortly
after his election to the Senate in 1972, to the passing of Beau, his
oldest son, on Saturday. In his 2007 memoir, *BIDEN* credits meeting Jill
Jacobs, whom he would marry in 1977,with helping him rebuild. “She gave me
back my life; she made me start to think my family might be whole again,”
then-Sen. *BIDEN* wrote in “Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics.” As the
*BIDEN* family prepares for this weekend’s funeral services (at which
President Obama will deliver a eulogy), below are passages from the memoir
highlighting Jill *BIDEN’S* singular relationship with the boys who would
become her stepsons, Beau and Hunter:

*On dating and holidays*

Jill was wary. I was almost ten years older and had two sons. She was just
starting her own career. I think it was easier for her in the beginning of
our courtship when I wasn’t thinking about marriage. We both just liked
having fun with somebody again, and she wanted to keep it that way. I
didn’t introduce Jill to the boys right away, but once I did, they hit it
off, and she was happy to include them in some of our dates. . . .

[B]y the time the first holidays rolled around, Jill was already integrated
into our lives. Even when I was stuck in Washington, she’d stop by the new
house on Montchan Road — we called it The Station — to have dinner with Val
and Jack [*BIDEN’S* sister and brother-in-law] and the boys. On
Thanksgiving 1975, it was Jill who suggested we get away. . . so the four
of us piled into a car and drove north for a long weekend. In the car on
the way up, Jill helped the boys make their Christmas lists. And when
Christmas rolled around that year, Jill made sure The Station was festive
and happy.

*How the boys pushed for marriage*

One morning the next year, Beau and Hunter walked into my bathroom while I
was shaving, and I could tell they had something serious they wanted to
talk about. Beau had just turned seven; Hunter was six. And they were
having trouble getting started.

“You tell him, Hunt,” Beau said to his brother.

“No. You tell him.”

Finally, Hunter spoke up: “Beau thinks we should get married.”

“What do you mean, guys? Beau?”

“Well,” Beau said, “we think we should marry Jill. What do you think, Dad?”

“I think that’s a pretty good idea,” I told them. I’ll never forget how
good I felt at that moment.

“But, Dad,” Beau said all in earnest, “d’ya think she’ll do it?”

They were observant, my sons. . . .

Jill and I were married by a Catholic priest at the United Nations chapel
in New York City in June 1977. We hadn’t told anybody but our family and
closest friends; we didn’t want to tempt the press. The ceremony itself was
family only — but that counted nearly forty. Beau and Hunter stood with us
at the altar. The way they thought of it, the four of us were getting
married.

*On doing laundry and naming a new sister*

I marveled at the way she let the boys come to her. I’m not sure I would
have had her patience. It didn’t happen right away, but I’ll never forget
how it felt the first time I saw her open her arms and brace herself for a
running hug from Beau and Hunter. . . . Jill was the parent who showed up
at the boys’ grade school to serve hot dogs or work in the library. She
drove them to sports and to Cub scouts. She cooked their meals. There were
plenty of nights when it was just the three of them at dinner. I’d come
home, and Jill would be laughing at the earnest help our two sons had been
offering at running the house. In the middle of her first week at the
house, Beau had said, “Jill, aren’t you ever going to do laundry?”

“What do you mean, Beau-y?” Jill said. “I usually do it once a week.” She
was not yet aware of the amount of laundry two young boys generate.

“You should probably do it every day,” Beau gently explained.

They had secret spy adventures together, too. A few years later, when Jill
thought she might be pregnant, she piled Beau and Hunt into the car and
drove to Eckerd’s drugstore to buy an early pregnancy test. . . . The boys
actually knew we were going to have a baby before I did, and Jill never
forgot how excited they were that day. She told them they could pick the
baby’s name, and Beau and Hunter named their sister Ashley.

*How “Jill” became “Mom”*

Jill and I never talked about it alone or with the boys, but I noticed one
day that they were no longer calling her Jill. They were calling her Mom.
Neilia would always be Mommy, but Jill was Mom. I’m sort of used to being
in charge, but in truth it was Jill and the boys who shaped the contours of
our remade family. At first I wasn’t even sure what to do with Neilia’s
pictures in the house, but Jill made that easy: When she embraced me and
the boys, she embraced everything. The boys went to visit Neilia’s parents
in Skaneateles almost every year at Easter break and during the summer. If
I was stuck on Senate or campaign business, Jill would drive the boys
north. She’d call the Hunters to brag that one of the boys got an A on the
test or played a good game. Jill honored our memory of Neilia, and she
always said that if anything ever happened to her she’d expect me to keep
her memory alive for the boys. . . .

Some years later, a magazine fact-checker called my Senate office with a
deadline crisis. A story about our family was going to press, and the
fact-checker was confused. She’d read about Neilia and Naomi and the
accident, but when Beau and Hunt had been asked about their “stepmom,”
Jill, they’d said, “Oh, no. We don’t have a stepmom.”

Beau and Hunter had long since made their choice: Jill was Mom.

In 2012, Jill *BIDEN* authored a children’s book titled “Don’t Forget, God
Bless Our Troops,” based on the experiences of Beau’s daughter, Natalie,
while her father was in Iraq with the Delaware Army National Guard. “My
experience through my son’s deployment made me realize how important it is
for all Americans to get a glimpse inside the life of a military family and
to understand what it means when a family member is deployed,” Jill *BIDEN*
wrote in the introduction. “I hope Natalie’s story gives readers some
insight and encourages them to commit a simple act of kindness toward a
military family.”

*Los Angeles Times*
<http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/la-na-biden-patriarch-20150606-story.html#page=1>

*Vice President Joe BIDEN, In Grieving For Son Beau, Shines As Family
Patriarch*

*By: Michael A. Memoli / June 5, 2015*

At times, the vice president rested his head in his hand or looked toward
the ceiling to compose himself.

After Thursday's service, as hundreds of people familiar and less so filed
by to pay their respects, the famously genial politician returned to form,
hugging those who offered condolences, remembering faces, at times seeming
to be the one consoling those who lined up outside the Delaware Statehouse
to pass by the casket.

Over nearly four hours, *BIDEN* never took a break. He might have stayed
longer but for another commitment: The vice president flew back to
Washington with his younger son, Hunter, arriving in time to attend the
middle school graduation of Hunter's youngest daughter, Maisy.

Many politicians wrap themselves in the image of a loving family. Few
actually live the role to the extent that *BIDEN* has done throughout his
political career, according to political adversaries as well as allies. For
years, he has been the patriarch of a sprawling family, one touched often
by tragedy.

On election day in 2008, as he flew to Chicago to join then-Sen. Barack
Obama to watch the returns, *BIDEN* told a reporter that his granddaughter
Finnegan, Hunter's middle daughter, had been the person who "pushed the
hardest" for him to accept when Obama offered him the No. 2 spot on the
Democratic ticket.

*BIDEN* recounted the pitch she had made — first that "Obama needs you,"
but then a more personal one: The vice president's official residence was a
mile and a half from her house.

For years, he said, family life had been centered on his home in
Wilmington, Del., which was designed to be large enough for the extended
family to all stay overnight around birthdays and holidays.

A move to Washington and the vice president's mansion would not disrupt
those routines, he said then. "In a sense, it's maybe a little easier if we
were to win," he said, without those almost daily Amtrak rides.

It has proved to be so. *BIDEN* hosts regular sleepovers for his
grandchildren at the residence and attends family sporting events and
school programs.

When planning foreign trips, he has often arranged to take grandchildren
along, making sure they have an itinerary separate from his own so he can
pepper them with questions on the way home.

"He would pick up things about the country from their experiences," said
Tony Blinken, a longtime *BIDEN* foreign policy advisor who now is deputy
secretary of State. "It was, in a funny way, multiplying his own presence
and ability to absorb things because they would have a different kind of
experience and they would relate it to him."

"You would see both the government officials we were visiting, but also the
local media and everyone we met comment on it," Blinken said.

On *BIDEN’S* first trip to China as vice president in 2011, Hunter's eldest
daughter, Naomi, joined him for many of the stops.

"It would be more appropriate to say Naomi brought me along with her, since
she's a budding Chinese speaker," he said in the trip's keynote speech in
Chengdu. "I've been listening to her on the whole trip."

Those trips were a continuation of what *BIDEN* had done in the Senate as a
member and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, when he took his
boys with him on separate trips to Europe as teenagers.

Democratic Sen. Thomas R. Carper, a former Delaware congressman and
governor, recalled seeing *BIDEN* kiss his younger children goodbye many
days at the Amtrak station in Wilmington.

"I can't tell you how many times I saw him bringing a granddaughter or
grandson with him on the train to Washington to spend a day with them, so
they could be with him, give them some special time," he said.

*BIDEN* nearly quit the Senate before he joined it. Shortly after his
election in 1972, an accident claimed the lives of his wife and infant
daughter and seriously injured his two sons. The crisis would forever
change the perspective of the ambitious young politician.

Delaware could get a new senator, but his boys couldn't get a new father,
he told friends and colleagues as he debated whether he should take the
oath of office. Democrats including Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts
and Majority Leader Mike Mansfield of Montana convinced him to take office,
and he began the daily Amtrak trips between Delaware and Washington that
came to shape his political persona.

By the time he was tapped for the vice presidency, his family had expanded
— a new wife and daughter, and later a new son-in-law, daughters-in-law and
five grandchildren.

"Because I had the incredibly good fortune of an extended family grounded
in love and loyalty, imbued with a sense of obligation imparted to each of
us, I not only got help, but by focusing on my sons, I found my
redemption," *BIDEN* recently told Yale students and families in a speech
before the university's graduation. "The incredible bond I have with my
children is a gift I'm not sure I would have had had I not been through
what I went through."

The heartbreak many close to *BIDEN* feel over the latest tragedy is
amplified by the fact that Beau was poised to inherit his father's status
in the family. It was Beau who introduced his father before his 2008
Democratic convention speech and put forward his name for nomination at the
2012 convention for a second term.

"In moments both public and private, he's the father I've always known, the
grandfather my children love and adore, and the vice president our nation
needs," Beau *BIDEN* said of his father in that speech.

The first call *BIDEN* would make at the end of each day, one aide said,
was to Beau. And he still returned regularly to his Wilmington home, where
Beau's family had temporarily moved while their own home was being
renovated.

That election day flight to Chicago in 2008 had dozens of *BIDENS* on board
— siblings, nieces, nephews — everyone but Beau, who was stationed in Iraq
while serving in the Delaware National Guard.

Joe and Beau had spoken by phone that morning, with Beau telling his father
he had received permission to return home to be with the family that night,
but decided against it: He didn't think it was right to leave his unit.

"This kid is a different brand of kid," *BIDEN* said.

*Huffington Post *
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/07/joe-biden-beau-wilmington-community_n_7527958.html>

*As Joe BIDEN Grieves, His Community Unites To Help Him Heal: 'They're Us'*

*By: Jennifer Bendery / June 6, 2015*

WILMINGTON, Del. -- There were about 1,000 people packed into the Saint
Anthony of Padua Church on Saturday for Beau *BIDEN’S* memorial service.
Members of Congress were there. Cable TV show hosts. White House staffers,
past and present. President Barack Obama was there, as were former
President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

But across the street, the sidewalks were lined with a different crowd:
people from the community. Dozens and dozens of them, separated from the
church by metal barriers and lines of police officers. None could say they
had a particularly close relationship with the *BIDEN* family, and they
couldn't see much of anything as they stood for hours hoping for a chance
to wave at Vice President Joe *BIDEN* and send their support.

Yet each person felt a connection to the *BIDEN* family. Everyone seemed to
have a story to share about why it was important to clear their schedules
to be close to the vice president, even if out of sight, as he grapples
with the pain of burying his second child.

The Huffington Post spoke to several people in and around Saturday's
service, from the woman who got an unexpected helping hand from the vice
president's daughter Ashley, to the manager of a shop in the Wilmington
train station who could relate to Beau *BIDEN’S* fight with cancer, to the
guy from Philadelphia who just got robbed (!) but still said his biggest
regret of the day was missing the chance to offer his condolences to the
*BIDEN* family.

Here are their stories in their own words, edited for brevity.

*Cathy Harrell of Wilmington*

*[Note: The BIDEN family held a memorial service for Beau BIDEN on Friday,
open to the public]*

Being here yesterday, we waited about five hours to get inside. But you
know what, it was OK. It was worth it, because Joe has waited for us and
stood for us for so many things and so many times. So it was definitely
worth it. I'm from Delaware, and they truly are who they say they are.

They're us. They're part of us. So we really do love them.

My sister, about five years ago, was beaten by a boyfriend she had been
dating for just a short period of time. When I came back from kind of
helping her out, I contacted Ashley, who runs the Delaware Center for
Justice. I did not know her personally, but I contacted her and asked if I
could talk to her. She met me for coffee and she was able to facilitate me
getting a meeting with some other advocates with the newly appointed
director of the Office on Violence Against Women in Washington.

It's Ashley, she's part of our town. She's the executive director of a
nonprofit organization. She doesn't need to be. She could do lots of other
things. So I just called her and she's like, sure, let's meet for coffee,
and we did. That's what Joe does. That's what they do. It's just the way
they are.

Coming out today, I read in the paper that that church, the Westboro
Baptist group, was going to be here, and it just made me sick. There were
three people there, with ugly [homophobic] signs. They were standing near
where the motorcade was, which apparently was their intention. So my sister
and I joined a group down there and helped block them. It was just
important to me to do, just as one person, whatever I could to shield the
family from seeing something so ugly or nasty.

*Carol Holly, manager of a shop in the Wilmington train station*

Oh, yes, everybody knows Beau. They said people stood in line for like
three to four hours yesterday just so they could send their condolences.
Because they loved him. He was just like, you know, somebody that would be
like your next-door neighbor. To me it was like, wow, to have that much
love for another person.

People around here, they feel sad for the *BIDEN* family. A couple of
people came in today and said they're going to pay their last respects and
go over there. They didn't know him personally. It was just something they
thought they should do, you know?

If I wasn't working, I would go. I've never met him, but just to show
respect for another human being. I'm a cancer survivor. I can understand
what he was going through. I had uterine cancer at 24 years old and my son
actually saved my life when I got pregnant. I was at stage 4 already. They
wouldn't have known about it if I wasn't pregnant. So, you know, I can kind
of empathize with what Beau was going through.

He was different. You looked at him as a person, not just an attorney
general. And some of the politicians are like, they're just rigid and
whatever. He was down to earth, somebody, like I said, that would live next
door to you.

*Liane Jones, manager of Avis Rental Car center in Wilmington*

There's a weeklong festival Saint Anthony's does every year; it starts on
Sunday. It's how the church generates their funds. They ceased all
preparations for the festival to deal with the funeral and everything.
Usually they'd be setting up starting on Friday. They stopped all that and
are going to just rush and do it Saturday night. They want to honor Beau.
It's nice to see people feel that way about an elected official.

I just think they're genuine people. Joe *BIDEN* is a very kind person.
Sometimes he says the wrong thing or whatever, but he seems like a really
nice person. For years, he came through the train station and he was always
very, very friendly. Even like, during the election period, he would come
in, talk to people, take pictures with people. He is a valued part of the
community.

It's really, really sad about Beau. I think the whole state is in mourning.
I don't necessarily think people care about every elected official this
way. The *BIDENS* are different. Even Jill, I mean she taught at Delaware
Technical and Community College, and she continued to teach during the
election and all that. So, people know that.

*John Lee of Philadelphia, stranded at the Wilmington train station*

Somebody just robbed me. I fell asleep on the bus this morning and they
took my $30. I'm trying to get back to Philly. I know Beau's service is
today, that's why I really wanted to be here. I came here to see my sister
and I was going to go with her today. But then all this happened.

I wanted to go today because I like Joe. Joe's all right, you know? I like
Joe. Because he's really together upstairs, and he's for everybody. That's
why I like him. I wanted to go to the service to pay my respect to his son.

*Amar Reddick, Wilmington city employee*

Their family is very friendly, very nice. Joe would be walking down the
street, talking to you, in and out of stores, he'd say hi to everyone. Even
Beau was like that. I worked with him on a case once.

It is unusual to see how much people care about an elected official. You
don't see that much because Joe *BIDEN* is the people's people. You don't
find too many politicians who will just sit down and talk to you. Most
politicians just wave you off. Both of them took the time to talk to you. I
remember I was at a fundraiser with Beau for the Delaware Association of
Police, and we talked about the Miami Heat. Just about basketball. Just a
normal, everyday conversation that people have. I don't think most
politicians would just have a conversation like that.

Nobody wants to bury their son. I just feel really sad for Joe *BIDEN*. I
think he's taking it real hard. Standing by the casket all day, I can
understand him wanting to keep his son close to him up until he's buried. I
have two boys, 12 and 2. I probably wouldn't leave the casket either.

*Eileen Birch, Wilmington resident for 60 years*

I've never been involved in politics and I don't want to be. I know the
*BIDENS* are nice people, and I know it's a good family. And I feel really
bad for them because they've gone through this and Beau was so young and I
really feel for his children. My heart goes out to them. The world is tough
today.

Joe *BIDEN* has a lot of friends. He grew up here. They have close friends.
And it's wonderful. Before he was vice president, he was always in our
procession at church. We have good neighbors and we're pretty close.

*Bill Dowling, Wilmington resident, wearing a Delaware shirt and wrapped in
an American flag*

To me, being outside this service is not as much a political gathering.
It's more like patriotism, being able to unify the people, even the most
diverse of people. That's kind of what it's about. Pride in Delaware, pride
in the United States.

I've never met the * BIDENS*. But I'm a fan. Joe *BIDEN* is a really good
man.

One thing about Wilmington, despite having the murder town USA stigma, it
is a really tight community. I can't explain it. But I love living here.
People really know each other. It seems like you've been friends for years
when you've just met. It's just the right people in the right area.

*Lee Simpson, FedEx employee in Wilmington*

Beau used to come into our shop on Saturdays. He was just an ordinary guy.
He wasn't your typical political person. We would have plain old
conversations. I can't even remember them. I came today to pay my respects.
My co-worker went to the service Thursday, and she was in line for like
four hours.

People here definitely feel connected to the *BIDENS*. It goes back to
1972, when Joe *BIDEN* lost his first wife. It's been that way ever since.
For decades, the community has been right behind him all the way.

Delaware is small, but like I said, people here just have that connection
with Joe *BIDEN* for some reason.

*Wilmington News Journal*
<http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2015/06/06/clintons-among-mourners-beau-biden/28595263/>

*Obama Mourns ‘Mighty Heart’ Of Beau BIDEN*

*By: Chris Barrish and Jonathan Starkey / June 7, 2015*

WILMINGTON – Three days of public mourning for Beau *BIDEN* ended Saturday
with an emotional two-hour funeral at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church,
where President Barack Obama called his vice president's son a "man of
character" whose death at age 46 "has left a gaping void in the world."

Obama spoke for 25 minutes at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church before
about 1,000 mourners, including former President Bill Clinton and his wife,
Hillary, a 2016 presidential candidate, who said their last goodbyes to
Beau before a national television audience.

Beau *BIDEN*, Delaware's former attorney general and the son of Vice
President Joe *BIDEN*, was 46 when he died May 30 after a nearly two-year
battle with brain cancer. *BIDEN* had not sought a third term in November,
saying he would instead run for governor in 2016.

Obama echoed other speakers, including Beau's younger brother and sister,
who praised *BIDEN’S* love of his family, fellow citizens and his country.
The president's words left those in pews choking back tears.

"He did in 46 years what most of us could not do in 146. He left nothing in
the tank," Obama said.

"He lived a life where the means were as important as the ends. He made you
want to be a better daughter or son or a better brother or sister. And
better at your job, a better soldier. He made you want to be a better
person.

"Isn't that finally the measure of a man, the way he lives, how he treats
others no matter what life may throw at him? We do not know how long we've
got here," Obama said. "We don't know when fate will intervene. We cannot
discern God's plan."

The funeral was the last in a three-day memorial for *BIDEN*. Thousands
attended viewings Thursday at Dover's Legislative Hall and Friday at St.
Anthony's, some waiting several hours to file past the American flag-draped
casket and one by one, embrace members of the *BIDEN* family.

Hunter *BIDEN*, 45, recalled the aftermath of the family's first tragedy,
the 1972 car crash that killed his mother and baby sister and seriously
injuring Beau and him.

His first memory, Hunter said, was lying in a hospital bed with his older
brother, who held his hand and stared into his eyes, saying " 'I love you,
I love you, I love you' over and over again. In the 42 years since, he
never stopped holding my hand, he never stopped telling me just how much he
loves me."

Beau *BIDEN* was an Iraq war veteran and Delaware attorney general, but
many Americans knew him best as Vice President Joe *BIDEN’S* son. He was
incredibly proud of that title and explained why at the 2008 Democratic
National Convention in Denver.

Beau *BIDEN’S* friends and admirers in Delaware say his death wasn't only a
loss for them personally, but a loss for the state. Vice President Joe
*BIDEN’S* son died of brain cancer at age 46.

Hunter told of being at Beau's bedside on May 30. "I held his hand and he
took his last breath," Hunter said. "I know that I was loved and I know
that his hand will never leave mine."

While Obama and others spoke, about 200 people inside the parish gymnasium
watched the funeral on two monitors. Outside, several hundred people
listened to the service from loudspeakers on the church property. Joe
*BIDEN*, who with his wife Jill and other family members greeted every last
mourner until 11 p.m. Friday, did not speak during the two-hour ceremony.

After the Mass, the *BIDEN* family buried Beau with military honors in a
private ceremony at St. Joseph on the Brandywine Roman Catholic Church
cemetery in Greenville, where on Friday under a nondescript green tent,
sheets of plywood covered his freshly dug grave. Beau's final resting place
is yards away from the graves of his mother Neilia and sister Naomi, who
were killed in 1972 in a car crash, and Joe *BIDEN’S* parents.

The two-hour funeral, which was televised live by cable news networks CNN
and MSNBC, was the first for the child of a sitting president or vice
president in more than a half-century. In August 1963, Patrick Bouvier
Kennedy, the son of President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline
Kennedy, died of respiratory disease two days after his birth.

Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for
Politics, said he's not surprised that so many people have been captivated
by the death of the vice president's son, an American political darling who
had addressed the last two Democratic national conventions.

"Once they opened this up to the press, it was inevitable that this would
become a big event," Sabato said. "It's so sad, so horribly sad. Nobody is
supposed to die at 46. People can't relate so much to politics, average
people don't have a clue about about trade agreements, but this grabs them."

*A life of 'incredible meaning'*

During Saturday's sermon, the Rev. Leo J. Donovan said Beau *BIDEN* lived
"not only a generous life but one of a search for justice that makes
friendship possible."

Donovan, president emeritus of Georgetown University, said he "wept" when
he heard Beau had passed.

"How very, very sad. It's heartbreaking," said Donovan, who called *BIDEN*
"as true a brother as anyone could ever have" and a "peerless patriotic
public servant."

Gen. Raymond Odierno, the U.S. Army chief of staff, presented the Legion of
Merit for Beau, who served one year in Iraq as a lawyer for the Delaware
Army National Guard. The award is given for exceptionally meritorious
conduct in the military. Odierno was the top commander in Iraq during
Beau's deployment.

Odierno said he had the utmost respect for *BIDEN* the soldier and
"patriot." He commended Beau for saying he would refuse an appointment to
the U.S. Senate to serve out his father's seventh term when Joe *BIDEN*
became vice president in January 2009.

"A life much too short but a life that had incredible meaning," Odierno
said. "A life that left an indelible mark on all of us."

In Iraq, *BIDEN* "always treated everyone with dignity and respect. Beau
*BIDEN’S* character was genuine. He had a natural charisma few people
possess," Odierno said.

He recalled *BIDEN* saying, "Sir, I'm just a soldier, doing my best and my
job to accomplish the mission."

The general also called him a treasure for "a nation I believed that Beau
*BIDEN* would someday lead."

Obama, who followed the general, lauded Beau's *BIDEN’S* eight years as
attorney general, saying he protected homeowners, senior citizens, victims
of violence and children who are sexually abused.

"Here was a scion of an incredible family who brushed away the possibility
of privilege for the harder, better reward of earning his own way,'' the
president said. "Here was a soldier who dodged glory, and exuded true
humility. A prosecutor who defended the defenseless. The rare politician
who collected more fans than foes, and the rarer public figure who
prioritized his private life above all else.

Above all, Obama said, Beau *BIDEN* was full of passion and joy.

"Beau *BIDEN* brought to his work a mighty heart. He brought to his family
a mighty heart," the president said, adding that the vice president's son
wasn't afraid to dance in a sombrero during a festive gathering.

"What a good man. What an original. May God bless his memory and the lives
of all he touched."

Hunter *BIDEN*, a lawyer and businessman, recalled how he and his friends
called his big brother "The Sheriff" when they were growing up.

"We knew that if any of us were in trouble, if we needed someone to lean
on, if we needed an answer, we could all turn to Beau," Hunter said.
"Growing up, every mom of every one of my friends knew if you were with
Beau, it would be all right.

"He was the sheriff who bailed us out, who kept us safe, showed us the path
home. He watched over all of us. Not one of us ever had to ask him. He was
simply there, always there when we needed him. He never expected anything
in return.

"We were never in his shadow. We were always under his wing."

Ashley *BIDEN*, 33, director of the Delaware Center for Justice, called her
brother "my first love." She said Beau "was my first call if I needed
support. He never judged and just listened."

Ashley *BIDEN* recalled "the tragic privilege'' of attending chemotherapy
treatments with her brother, and eating breakfast afterward.

"I will forever treasure our time together and the many conversations we
had about life,'' she said. "During our breakfast he would make me listen
to what I thought was his theme song, "You Get What You Give" by the New
Radicals.

"Even though he never stopped fighting and his will to live was stronger
than most, I think he knew that this day might come. The words to this song
are, 'This whole damn world could fall apart, you will be OK. Follow your
heart. You are in harm's way; I am right behind.'

"In retrospect, I think he played that song not for him, but for me."

Mourners who packed the church in Little Italy included former U.S.
Attorney General Eric Holder and Caroline Kennedy, the U.S. ambassador to
Japan and JFK's only surviving child. Also in attendance were several
members of Congress and Obama's cabinet, including Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell, Sen. Harry Reid, Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Patrick Leahy,
Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

Leading Delaware's political delegation were Gov. Markell and the
congressional delegation – Sens. Tom Carper and Chris Coons and Rep. John
Carney.

Chris Martin of the band Coldplay, which Beau *BIDEN* enjoyed, played an
acoustic guitar and sang, "Til Kingdom Come," whose lyrics include the
passage, "For you, I'd wait 'til kingdom come. Until my days, my days are
done." Martin heard about *BIDEN’S* appreciation of his music and
volunteered to sing.

Beau *BIDEN*, who suffered a minor stroke in 2010, was diagnosed with brain
cancer in August 2013, when doctors at the University of Texas MD Anderson
Cancer Center in Houston removed a small lesion from his brain. He
underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatment and was given a clean bill
of health by his doctor in November 2013 but the cancer returned this
spring. He sought aggressive treatment and last month checked into Walter
Reed National Military Medical Center, where he died.

*'We lost a leader'*

Obama's plane landed at the Delaware Air National Guard base near New
Castle about 10 a.m., where he was greeted by Gov. Jack Markell and Col.
Donald Bevis, commander of the 166th Airlift Wing.

When Obama's motorcade arrived at the church about 10:10 a.m. with his
mother-in-law Marian Robinson, First Lady Michelle Obama and daughter
Sasha, six New Castle County police officers sat at attention atop
Clydesdale horses.

The Obama family joined the crowd in the packed church, as organ music
played.

At 10:39 a.m., the strains of bagpipes could be heard, along with drummers.
About 10:50 a.m., Joe *BIDEN*, his wife Jill, Beau's widow Hallie and their
children Natalie and Hunter, his siblings and other family entered the
church behind Beau's casket, to the song "Bring Him Home" from "Les
Miserables."

Six pallbearers – Jim *BIDEN*, Jack Owens, Cuffe Owens, Frank *BIDEN*,
Howard Krein and Jamie *BIDEN* – wheeled in Beau *BIDEN’S* coffin.

More than three hours earlier, hundreds were already lined up to enter the
church. Invited guests stood in one line and the general public in another.
Many were told they might not get a seat. All had to go through Secret
Service security checkpoints.

Among those with invitations was Delaware NAACP president Richard Smith.
"It's sad. It hurts. It hurts the people of Delaware especially the black
community," Smith said as he started making his way into the security
perimeter. "We lost a leader and we lost an adopted family member."

Patricia Dailey Lewis, director of the Family Division of the Delaware
Department of Justice, said Beau *BIDEN’S* legacy is giving voice to the
voiceless. He was always there for victims and their families, she said.

"He would give his personal cell in cases to victims who needed someone to
listen," she said. "Beau was the most deeply compassionate man I ever met
in my life."

Steve Gow, 35, of Wilmington, lined his lawn facing the front of St.
Anthony's with small American flags. Having the ceremony and Friday's
public viewing unfold in front of his house has been impressive, but sad,
he said.

"It's intimate. It's tragic. It's patriotic. I was getting chills," he
said. "It's the best of everything is what it is. You hear a lot about
Murder Town" – which Newsweek magazine recently dubbed Wilmington – "but
this is the best of Delaware."

The scene outside the funeral perimeter included three members of anti-gay
Westboro Baptist Church from Topeka, Kansas who held protest signs and sang
at the corner Pennsylvania Avenue and DuPont Street, more than a
quarter-mile from the church, until about 10 a.m. One man was arrested
after thanking them and tossing McDonalds coffee at members.

The Westboro trio were countered by about 100 people who sang "Amazing
Grace" and held American flags and pink signs in an attempt to block the
Westboro placards.

One sign read, "God Bless Beau *BIDEN*."

Outside the church, Naomi Price wiped her eyes as Beau's coffin was taken
from the hearse. Her aunt, Gena Dempsey, said Beau *BIDEN* will long be
missed by Delawareans.

"He was as much our son as he was Joe's."

*Daily Beast*
<http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/06/07/he-s-the-vice-president-but-at-his-son-s-wake-he-s-one-of-us.html>

*He’s the Vice President’s Son, But At His Son’s Wake, He’s One Of Us*

*By: Mike Barnicle / June 7, 2015*

It was just after noon Friday when a hole opened in the gray clouds above
the Little Italy neighborhood in Wilmington and the sun began to burn off
the drizzle and haze surrounding the sidewalks by St. Anthony of Padua
Catholic Church. Across the street from the church several residents of The
Antonian, a senior citizen apartment building, sat on lawn chairs set up in
the shade of elm trees that acted as an awning against the coming afternoon
heat while hundreds stood in a long line that stretched for blocks down
West 10th Street waiting for Beau *BIDEN’S* wake to begin.

The sound of motorcycles ruffled the thick air as several police vehicles
came up West 9th and stopped near the main entrance to St. Anthony’s, a
sprawling stone cathedral with stained glass windows and a red
Mediterranean shingle roof. A hearse followed the motorcycles and then an
honor guard gently lifted a casket from the hearse and carried it down the
center aisle of the church.

Just after 1 o’clock, the *BIDEN* family arrived, a large sprawling Irish
Catholic unit of one as familiar here as the waters of the Delaware River.
They were led by Joe *BIDEN* wearing aviator sunglasses, dark blue suit,
white shirt, stripe tie and a soft, gentle face that alternated between
sadness and a forced smile of habit. Within minutes, he was in front of the
altar, standing straight as a sentry, an arm’s length from the flag-draped
casket containing the soul and spirit of Beau *BIDEN*, his oldest boy.

He was the Vice President of the United States but here in the heart of
Wilmington he was simply Joe, again a grieving parent grinding his way
through a day in a life that was one more bead of The Sorrowful Mysteries
of the Rosary.

“They’re here I think,” Agnes Daughtery told her sister Elma.

“The line will start to move now,” her sister replied.

The two women had been standing on West 10th alongside the church for
nearly an hour waiting for the family to arrive. They drove down from the
Philadelphia suburbs and parked in a lot three blocks away on Pennsylvania
Avenue by Grotto Pizza.

“Soon as we got out of the car a woman said to us, ‘You can’t park there.
Customers park there,’” Agnes Daughtery said. “But when we told her why we
were here, for Beau *BIDEN’S* wake, she said, ‘Ohmigod, I’m sorry. Sure.
Leave it there, honey.’”

Twenty yards away, at the top of West 10th, people came through the
magnetometers placed beneath a long white tent top. Many of them were
dignitaries, senators and members of Congress, familiar faces from the
national media and all were ushered past the long line toward the front
entrance of the church. The line in front of Agnes Daughtery did not move
as the sun began to dominate the day.

Now it was close to 2:30 p.m. and she and her sister had made it to the
steps that led up to the school gym that is connected to the parish
elementary school. Many in front of and behind her were simply there out of
loyalty and devotion and friendship with the grieving family. They had come
from different places and different distance; from Washington, from
Scranton, Baltimore, Philadelphia, down the street, across town and they
comprised a militia of the mournful, standing in the heat of the day,
simply waiting to offer the young man’s parents, his wife, his children,
his brother and sister, aunts, uncles, nephews and nieces their condolences
for a life lost too young and a family asked to bear nearly too much.

They wore suits and dark dresses, jeans, khakis, short sleeve shirts,
sneakers and dress shoes. They were as American a gathering as the eye will
ever encounter and they were quiet, respectful, patient and heartbroken as
the line snaked slowly up 14 steps and formed a serpentine unit as it
twisted into the relief of the shade inside the school gymnasium.

The crowd was the core, the heart, soul and foundation of support and
solace for a promising future taken and a parent who has remained amazingly
human and normal while surrounded by trappings of power and prestige. Joe
*BIDEN* is an emotional man and, now, as the hours passed and the crowds
did not diminish he found strength and comfort in each person as they
slowly, very slowly, made their way toward the altar, the casket and a
whole, proud family that carried loss with both dignity and gratitude for
who Beau *BIDEN* was and what he’s accomplished in 46 years.

“Look at all the championships,” Agnes Daughtery said to her sister,
pointing to the pennants hanging on the gym wall.

“The Tigers,” Elma said, indicating the school team’s nickname. “I guess
they’re pretty good.”

“He’s a normal person, not just a politician, and I’m proud to be here.”

The pennants were black and orange. They honored more than a decade’s worth
of victories in girl’s volleyball, boy’s baseball and individual honors as
well. Quotes from Knute Rockne, John Wooden and Lou Holtz had been stitched
on flag-like cloths and hung alongside the pennants.

It took an hour and a half for the line to snake through the gym and back
outdoors to the terrace next to a side entrance of the church. It was just
past 4 p.m. now and a soft breeze brought some relief to the waiting crowd.
Many of the men had removed their jackets and more than a few people left
the line to sit on benches set beneath a tent top outside the gym, the
benches and tables arranged for the beginning of the annual St. Anthony’s
Italian Festival scheduled to begin Sunday.

A Catholic wake is part remembrance, part devotion and a permanent gesture
of friendship, respect and love for the departed as well as the living left
with memories and broken hearts. There is unity and strength in grief.

By 5 p.m. both sisters had made it to the narrow steps of the church’s side
entrance. There, they could see and hear the Vice President of the United
States as he greeted the hundreds who circled along the side aisle of the
church and down the center aisle to the waiting family.

Joe *BIDEN* would stand there from his arrival at 1 p.m. until the last of
the mourners left shortly after 11 p.m. Friday. He was a swirl of emotion,
never leaving his dead son’s side. His family stood there with him.

He seemed to get stronger as he grasped the hand of each visitor. Within
him, his son Beau still lived. In his eyes and in his mind, he could see
still the boy, Beau, in a hospital bed alongside his brother Hunter, both
of them nearly killed in a car crash that took their mother and baby sister
in the winter of 1972, weeks after he had been first elected to the United
States Senate. He could see himself playing catch with his boys, writing
letters to them as they were hospitalized and, later, as they marched
bravely through a life shattered already by loss. He saw his son riding the
train with him to Washington and back, saw himself walking through the door
at the end of nearly every day to talk with them about school, about
supper, about the road ahead.  He was, for Beau, for all his children, for
his whole family, the embodiment of the religious hymn, “Be Not Afraid.”

Now it was nearly 5:30 p.m. and the sisters stood 20 feet from the altar,
the casket and the *BIDEN* family. In front of them, Joe *BIDEN* hugged a
man who walked with the aid of a cane. He turned to his wife Jill and said,
“I went to high school with this guy. He’s a barber. Used to cut my hair …
when I had enough hair to cut. God love ya’, thanks for coming. It means a
lot to me and our family.”

Agnes Daughtery and her sister Elma stood next in line. After six and a
half hours they quietly summoned all their strength to offer their support
and sorrow for a loss that seemed nearly unbearable to them. Joe *BIDEN*
held their hand, hugged them both, thanked them for coming and kissed each
woman on the cheek. They went next to Jill *BIDEN*, then Beau’s wife Hallie
and then his brother Hunter. And then the two women walked down the side
aisle and out of the church into the fading sunlight.

“How long have you known the Vice President?” Agnes Daughtery was asked.

“Well I don’t really know him,” she answered. “This was the first time I
met him.”

“Really?” I said.

“Really,” she replied.

“And you stood in line all this time?” I said to her. “How come?”

“Because I love who he is,” she said. “He is a family man who knows what
it’s like to lose something you love in life. I’ve always loved him. He’s
one of us. He’s a normal person, not just a politician, and I’m proud to be
here.”

*Washington Post*
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/06/08/what-it-was-like-to-cover-beau-bidens-funeral/>

*What It Was Like To Cover Beau BIDEN’S Funeral*

*By: Juliet Eilperin / June 8, 2015*

Sometimes the most important thing a journalist can do is bear witness to
grief.

I learned this years ago, when I wrote my first obituary for The Washington
Post. It can provide comfort to an individual’s most intimate friends and
family while simultaneously conveying that same person’s significance to
total strangers. It is a moment to say why someone mattered now that they
are no longer here.

On Saturday morning I joined a small cadre of reporters all charged with
that duty, and something a little more complicated. We had to share, in
real time, how a family and the broader community surrounding them were
coping with the sudden loss of someone central to their lives. And we were
doing that from the vantage point of the president of the United States,
whom we would trail for several hours with our laptops, iPhones and
recording equipment in tow.

Pool reports are a way to capture what the president is doing when not
every reporter can witness it firsthand. Journalists from every medium —
print, wires, television, radio and photo — accompany him whenever he
leaves the White House and describe what he's doing so others can
incorporate it into their own coverage. Nothing in a pool report is
proprietary: journalists can use it as if they witnessed it firsthand,
without attribution. You cannot store away a particularly nice detail for
yourself while pooling; instead, you put it all in a series of e-mails that
are distributed to thousands of people while you are with the president.

Sometimes White House reporters try to pawn off pool duty on their
colleagues: it can be a bear, especially if you are also trying to file a
story on the event that you’re pooling. Not this time. Every single member
of the print pool volunteered to go. Some of them, including Bloomberg’s
Margaret Talev and AP’s Josh Lederman, had covered the vice president for
years and know him well.

Some aspects of the morning were routine: The ride to Joint Base Andrews,
the military bus transport to the terminal and the security sweep take
place each and every time we take off on Air Force One. But it was clear
this was not an ordinary assignment: All the reporters — just like the
members of the first family — were dressed in black.

The motorcade from Delaware Air National Guard Base to Wilmington hammered
home how different this journey was from others I’ve taken with the
president. Motorcade routes are almost always lined at points by onlookers
snapping photos with their smartphones; sometimes they hold signs praising
— or blasting — President Obama for his policies. This time, as we entered
town, not a single sign mentioned the leader of the United States.

"God bless the *BIDEN* family," read several. "God bless Beau and Joe,"
said others. A local pizza joint had changed the lettering on a driveway
billboard to say, "Our prayers are with the *BIDEN* family."

In this age of hyper-partisanship, it was almost a relief to feel like
politics was irrelevant for once.

Once we had exited the motorcade’s vans, we were ushered into the back row
of St. Anthony of Padua Church. Just a few inches separated us from people
in the midst of mourning, who had known Beau *BIDEN* much better than we
did. We quietly accepted programs, unpacked our gear, set our devices to
silent and powered up our computers.

As a pooler, your job is to capture not just the president’s movements but
the details others cannot see from a webcast or transcript of the event.
Politico’s Edward-Isaac Dovere was serving as the vice president’s print
pooler that day, and he relayed several tiny, heartbreaking details in an
11:11 am e-mail to other reporters via *BIDEN’S* office:

Just before the door to the hearse opened, the vice president briefly
looked up to the sky, and then forward again, his face unmoving. He put his
arm around Hallie *BIDEN* and then kissed her on the head as they saw the
casket, then bowed his head. He reached around his daughter-in-law and
rubbed his grandson’s head gently. *BIDEN’S* own son Hunter, standing right
behind them, reached forward and wrapped his arm around his nephew.

I did my best to provide an account of those details, too — the vice
president leaning down to kiss his grandson Hunter’s head multiple times at
one point, the draping of the American flag over the casket. As I was
typing some of this running commentary into my iPhone, or whispered a
question to one of my seatmates to make sure I was describing something
accurately, I wondered what the people surrounding us thought. Did they
think we were gossiping, in the midst of such a somber service? Did they
consider us intruders, or did they see us as people providing a valuable
lens into the day’s events? It was impossible to tell.

But even as I and other reporters typed away, there were moments when there
was no way to keep the sheer impact of the *BIDENS’* public expression of
pain at a distance. The raw emotion of Hunter *BIDEN’S* recollection of his
brother holding his hand in the hospital after a car crash when they were
toddlers, saying “I love you” over and over again, Ashley *BIDEN’S*
description of the sleepovers she spent as an 8-year-old in her brother’s
college apartment; it was impossible to stay aloof. Every single journalist
in that back pew cried at some point.

And when it was over, there was one thing that the reporters who happened
to be parents wanted to do — get home to our children. As I ran up the
stairs of my house to the second floor where my kids were playing, they
greeted me with a single — and simple — request. They wanted to make ants
on a log, that childhood snack that involves spreading peanut butter on a
celery stick and placing raisins on top to simulate the tiny insects at a
crawl.

I knew I had to make some tweaks to the stories I had written over the
course of the day, but that would have to wait, as I fired off an e-mail to
my two editors. “I just got home and I'm headed out with the kids to the
store so we can get celery for ‘ants on a log,’" I wrote.

And with that I ushered my children out the door, strapped on their
helmets, and loaded them on their bicycles. As they pedaled down the alley
I thought of Beau *BIDEN* riding the escalators with his son at the
Democratic National Convention, and how in a day full of weighty moments,
this one mattered most of all.

-- 

Alexander Snyder Mackler
(302) 598-867