President Barack Obama and his family joined a host of U.S. political figures including Bill and Hillary Clinton on yesterday to mourn Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Beau, who died last week of brain cancer at the age of 46.
One thousand people filled the St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Wilmington for a funeral Mass for Biden, a former Delaware attorney general who also served a year-long term in Iraq as a member of the Delaware Army National Guard.
The vice president processed into the church with his family at the beginning of the service.
Beau Biden was diagnosed with brain cancer in August 2013 and underwent surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. It recurred in the spring of this year.
His death was another tragic chapter in the life of the vice president, who lost his first wife and his daughter in a car accident shortly after winning election to the U.S. Senate in 1972. Beau and his brother Hunter were injured in the crash but survived.
Beau Biden, who was married with two children, has been praised over the last week as having lived a life of exemplary service. His death has drawn wide U.S. media coverage and an outpouring of sympathy for the vice president.
Obama, whose family is close to the Bidens and who had a personal relationship with Beau, was asked by the vice president to deliver a eulogy. Agency report
