Tributes as Joe Biden buries son
Calling himself part of the Biden clan, President Barack Obama remembered Beau Biden as a selfless son and consummate public servant in a eulogy delivered at his funeral service.
“He did in 46 years what most of us couldn’t do in 146,” Obama said. “He left nothing in the tank.”
Addressing the vice president and his wife Jill, Obama reflected on their friendship: “Michelle and I thank God you are in our lives. Taking this ride with you is one of the great pleasures of our lives. Joe, you are my brother.”
Beau Biden, the vice president’s oldest son, died a week ago after a two-year battle with brain cancer that played out mostly in private, in contrast to the intensely public life that the Bidens have lived for decades.
An overflow crowd of more than 1,000 packed St Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Wilmington, Delaware, to pay their respects.
Local residents sat among political luminaries such as Hillary Rodham Clinton, former president Bill Clinton and attorney general Loretta Lynch.
For the vice president, the death marked yet another untimely personal loss. More than four decades ago a car crash killed his wife and baby daughter and injured his two sons just weeks after he was elected to the Senate.
Joe Biden was sworn in at the hospital where three-year-old Beau and his younger brother, Hunter, were being treated.
The vice president, who did not speak at the funeral, embraced Obama after crossing himself solemnly as he entered the church to the strains of ‘Bring Him Home’, from the musical Les Miserables.
Outside the church before the Mass, Joe Biden held hands with his son’s widow, Hallie Biden, and his granddaughter, Natalie, as six pallbearers wheeled the coffin into the church.
Amid the solemnity were spirited moments — a gospel choir’s rendition of Amazing Grace and Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin’s performance of Till Kingdom Come. The White House said Hunter Biden had been a Coldplay fan and that when Martin found out, he asked to come to the funeral.
General Ray Odierno, the top US commander in Iraq when Beau Biden served there, eulogised his former soldier.
