NEWS

Biden memorial: 'We all knew him as Beau'

Jonathan Starkey, Cris Barrish, and Esteban Parra
The News Journal
  • FRIDAY%3A A public viewing will be held at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church%2C 901 N. DuPont St%2C Wilmington%2C from 1 to 4 p.m.%2C and again from 6 to 9 p.m.
  • SATURDAY%3A A public funeral Mass will be held at 10%3A30 a.m. at St. Anthony%27s%2C though seating will be limited%2C church officials said. President Barack Obama will deliver the eulogy and foreign dignitaries are expected to attend.

DOVER – One by one, about 1,000 Delawareans powerful and ordinary filed past Beau Biden's casket Thursday, stopping to mourn with his father, Vice President Joe Biden, and his wife, Jill, and other members of the family.

Mourners slowly made their way through Legislative Hall and individually paid their respects to Delaware's first family of politics.

Former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden died last week of brain cancer at 46. His body was brought from Wilmington to the Capitol in a hearse led by a convoy of police, SUVs and police motorcycles with lights flashing. The convoy took Del. 1 to Odessa, and then traveled U.S. 13 through Odessa, Smyrna and Cheswold — stopping traffic at intersections — before entering Dover.

Inside the Senate chambers Gov. Jack Markell led Delaware's political elite in a tribute to Biden during a solemn half-hour memorial service. Then came the public. Many arrived in shuttle buses and waited for hours in long lines outside before snaking through the corridors of the state Capitol. Once inside they were hugged and kissed by the man they elected to seven U.S. Senate terms and ascended to two terms as vice president.

Vice President Joe Biden covers his eye during Thursday’s memorial service for his son Beau. To his left are his wife, Jill, and Beau’s daughter Natalie, widow Hallie and son Hunter.

Biden family members – including Beau's widow, Hallie, and their two children, Natalie and Hunter, as well as Beau's brother, Hunter, and his wife, Kathleen, and his sister, Ashley, and her husband, Dr. Howard Krein – stood in the receiving line more than four hours.

Biden, who left office in January after two terms with his sights set on succeeding Markell in 2017, died Saturday at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. After recovering from a minor stroke he suffered in 2010, Biden was diagnosed with cancer in August 2013, when he had a small lesion surgically removed from his brain at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Two more memorial services for the public will be held Friday at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Wilmington. Biden's funeral will be Saturday at St. Anthony, with President Barack Obama delivering the eulogy. National and foreign dignitaries are expected to attend.

Many at Thursday's memorial sobbed, unable to contain their grief at the death of a man expected to be a state political leader for years to come.

Joe Biden, a tower of stoicism in tragedy, who lost his wife and infant daughter to a car car crash in 1972 that almost killed Beau and Hunter, kept his head down much of the service, wiping his eyes.

While the gathering was largely a Delaware affair, two national figures were in attendance: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Like he did with so many others, Joe Biden hugged and kissed Cuomo, and they spoke briefly. It was clear Biden was moved that Cuomo had come.

Power was directly behind Cuomo, also sharing a long embrace with Biden.

After the political leaders paid their respects, Joe Biden managed to offer grim smiles and eventually seemed to be comforting many of the mourners.

"I knew I'd see you, child!" he said to one older woman before the two embraced.

The body of Joseph R. “Beau” Biden III arrives at Legislative Hall in Dover. Biden, who died Saturday, lay in honor in the state Senate chamber.

A common refrain by Biden was to agree with someone's assessment of his elder son, who had followed his footsteps in politics and was considered a shoo-in for governor.

"He was a good guy," Biden said time and time again.

State Rep. Andria Bennett of Dover said it hurt to watch Joe Biden talk to people about his fallen son.

"He'd have some laughter,'' she said, "and then there'd be pain."

'Taken away too soon'

Markell and other state leaders who spoke at the service praised Beau Biden's love for his family and Delawareans, and lauded the prosecutor's efforts to protect children from sexual predators, punish violent criminals and stop senior citizens from being defrauded.

"Beau made Delaware a better place for us all," Markell said while overlooking the casket, which was draped with an American flag. "And he did so because of his determination and his persistence, because of his intellect and his willingness to fight."

"Because of what Beau Biden did in this very building, the children of Delaware are safer for generations to come," Markell said. "Delaware seniors are more secure; crime victims are more certain that the state stands behind them. Students are more confident that bullies will be held accountable."

Markell also presented the Biden family with the Delaware Conspicuous Service Cross in honor of Beau, who served as a lawyer for the Delaware Army National Guard and spent one year in Iraq on active duty in 2008 and 2009.

Also speaking were Attorney General Matt Denn, Senate President Pro Tem Patricia Blevins, National Guard Chaplain Ed Brandt, House Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf and former Delaware Chief Justice Myron Steele. Among those in attendance were former Gov. Ruth Ann Minner, who preceded Markell, and almost all 62 members of the Delaware General Assembly.

Schwartzkopf told a story of Beau Biden visiting him in his Dover office and saying, " 'I just want to come in and give you a hug.' He said, 'You're my friend. I miss you. I don't get to see you that much.' That's the Beau I knew."

Denn, the former lieutenant governor who succeeded Biden, said Beau made sure his two children, now 11 and 9, came first. "Natalie and Hunter knew how much he loved them," Denn said. "He was taken away from them too soon."

A police officer stands next to a photo of Joseph R. “Beau” Biden III family at Legislative Mall in Dover.

Blevins called Beau Biden a "true gentleman of genuine kindness" who "will long be remembered a fine and exemplary son of the First State."

Steele said that during several decades in Delaware's government, "I never met a more conscientious, caring or thoughtful person" than Beau Biden. "Everyone who met him loved him instantly."

Said Brandt, who was deployed in Iraq with Biden: "We knew him in so many ways, dear Lord, Major Biden, Attorney General Biden, dad, son, brother, husband. And we all knew him as Beau."

'An absolute kick in the gut'

Thursday's Legislative Hall memorial was the first of its kind in Delaware. Officials have no record of any other such public mourning event in the Capitol since it opened in 1933.

Col. John Haslet, an officer in the Continental American Army during the American Revolution, was likely the last person to be laid in honor in the Old State House Building in Dover, according to Russ McCabe, a Delaware historian and former state archivist. Haslet was killed in the Battle of Princeton in 1777. His remains were transferred from Philadelphia to Dover in 1841 where they laid in rest for a day at the State House.

Hours before the service began, volunteer fire company trucks from Dover and Rehoboth Beach raised aerial ladders high over Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard adjacent to Legislative Hall. Firefighters scrambled up both ladders and rigged an outsized American flag.

People started gathering outside shortly after 11 a.m., including media crews from the region that lined the edge of The Green across the street. Delaware Capitol Police swept the building with police dogs as friends, legislators and former staff members of Biden's gathered outside.

At about 11:45 a.m. several state officials, including Cabinet secretaries David S. Small and Secretary of State Jeffrey W. Bullock, began arriving. State prosecutor Kathleen M. Jennings and Jason Miller, former spokesman for Beau Biden at the Attorney General's Office, also were in the group.

Honor guard practices bringing the casket in for Beau Biden memorial service in Dover Thursday.

Many lawmakers and government officials said the Legislative Hall tribute is fitting for Biden, who followed his father into politics after growing up in the public eye as the son of Delaware's leading politician.

"I'm just happy we're able to pay tribute in this way," said Sen. Harris McDowell, Delaware's longest-serving lawmaker.

Rita Landgraf, secretary of the state Department of Health and Social Services, teared up as she waited in line.

"It's stunning," said Landgraf, who worked closely with Beau during the prosecution of pedophile pediatrician Earl Bradley. In Biden's drive to get justice for the children hurt by Bradley, "he went beyond his call of duty."

At 12:50 p.m. in Washington, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed Delaware Congressman John Carney's resolution commemorating Biden's life.

"This weekend, Beau Biden left this world far too soon at the age of 46," Carney told fellow members of Congress. "My home state of Delaware, and this country, suffered a loss that is deeply painful, and deeply personal."

After being diagnosed with cancer, Biden underwent a round of chemotherapy and radiation treatment. The vice president's office said in November 2013 that he was given a clean bill of health by his doctor. But Biden's cancer returned this spring, and he immediately sought aggressive treatment. He was admitted to Walter Reed for treatment late last month.

Former House Speaker Robert Gilligan said Thursday's service demonstrated "an outpouring of emotion because of what he accomplished and also out of respect for the Biden family. It's such a terrible tragedy."

Gov. Jack Markell greets members of the public as they wait in line to pay their respects to Beau Biden on Thursday at Legislative Hall in Dover.

Outside after the service, Markell described the last week as a surreal experience.

"When the hearse pulled up," the governor said, "It was just like an absolute kick in the gut."

At 5 p.m., with dozens of mourners still lined up in the lobby, including many who had braved a steady rain that had begun falling outside, the vice president emerged from the chambers.

"Thank you," Beau's father said. "Thank you for coming."

Jennifer Rini, Jeff Montgomery, Jon Offredo, robin brown and William H. McMichael contributed. Contact senior investigative reporter Cris Barrish at (302) 324-2785, cbarrish@delawareonline.com, on Facebook or Twitter @crisbarrish. Contact Jonathan Starkey at (302) 983-6756, on Twitter @jwstarkey or at jstarkey@delawareonline.com. Contact Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299, eparra@delawareonline.com or Twitter @eparra3.

FRIDAY

A public viewing will be held at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, 901 N. DuPont St, Wilmington, from 1 to 4 p.m., and again from 6 to 9 p.m.

SATURDAY

A public funeral Mass will be held at 10:30 a.m. at St. Anthony's, though seating will be limited, church officials said. President Barack Obama will deliver the eulogy and foreign dignitaries are expected to attend.