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WILMINGTON, Dec. 18 (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 young daughter.
Biden, 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. At 18 they went out and bought a Christmas tree. The couple’s two sons, Beau and Hunter, who had just turned 4 and 3 at the time, were also in the car and were seriously injured.
The tragedy nearly prompted Biden, who was also 30 at the time of the accident, to abandon his fledgling political career. But on the advice of other senators, he stayed on, commuting between Washington and Delaware. Biden’s openness about grief and his ability to empathize with fellow Americans who have experienced loss have become defining features of his political career.
Biden married Jill Jacobs in 1977 and they have a daughter, Ashley. Both women went with him on Sunday, as did Hunter and many of the president’s grandchildren at St. Joseph’s Church in Brandywine Roman Catholic Church. After the ceremony, the family walked to the grave with two large wreaths.
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Beau Biden died of brain cancer in 2015 at the age of 46. He was also buried in the cemetery. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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