Joseph on the Brandywine Catholic Church on the anniversary of the deaths of the president's first wife, Neilia, and daughter Naomi, in Wilmington, Delaware, Dec. President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill Biden and other family members arrive at St. After the service, the family walked out toward the graves carrying two large wreaths.īeau Biden died of brain cancer in 2015 at 46. President Joe Biden on Saturday paid an emotional visit to the Delaware grave sites of his first wife and their baby to mark the anniversary of their deaths. Joseph on the Brandywine Roman Catholic Church. The couple had three children together before Neilia and daughter Naomis unexpected deaths in 1972. Both women joined him on Sunday, as did Hunter and many of the president’s grandchildren among others at St. Joe Biden married his first wife, Neilia Hunter, in 1966. Biden’s raw openness around grief and his ability to empathize with fellow Americans who have experienced loss have become defining traits of his political career.īiden married Jill Jacobs in 1977 and they had a daughter, Ashley. In Joe Biden's black mood after the accident, nothing mattered except four-year-old Beau and three. The tragedy has informed much of Biden’s. But on the advice of other senators he stayed in office, commuting back and forth from Washington to Delaware. In the past, President Biden has spoken about the 1972 car accident that killed his first wife, Neilia Hunter, and their 1-year-old daughter Naomi Biden. The tragedy almost prompted Biden, also age 30 when the accident happened, to give up his fledgling political career. The couple’s two sons, Beau and Hunter, who were just about to turn 4 and 3 at the time, were also in the car and were seriously injured. 18 of that year as they went out to buy a Christmas tree. (AP) - President Joe Biden and his family held a private memorial service Sunday to mark the 50th anniversary of the car crash that killed his first wife and their baby daughter.īiden, who had just been elected to the Senate in November 1972, was not in the car when his wife, 30-year-old Neilia, and their 13-month-old daughter, Naomi, were broadsided by a tractor-trailer on Dec.