Beau Biden, the Son of Vice President’s Son, Dies at Age 46 of Brain Cancer

Beau Biden,  the son of Vice President Biden and former state attorney general of Delaware, died Saturday after battling brain cancer at the age of 46. He is survived by his wife, Hallie, and two children. Joseph Robinette “Beau” Biden III had battled brain cancer for several years and underwent surgery in Houston in 2013 and then followed a normal course of radiation and chemotherapy. In 2010,  Biden, suffered a mild stroke. Biden had been given a clean bill of health in 2013; however, Beau had a recurrence this spring in 2015 and began an aggressive treatment and was admitted to Walter Reed this month. Sadly, he has lost his battle with this insidious disease.

Beau Biden, a major in the Delaware Army National Guard’s Judge Advocate General Corps, became one of his state’s most popular public figures and had been considered the front-runner for the 2016 race to become the state’s next governor, but in August 2013 he was admitted to one of the world’s most renowned cancer treatment centers, MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, to begin his fight with the disease.

Beau Biden became a national political star in 2008 after delivering a stirring introduction of his father at the Democratic National Convention in Denver the night Joe Biden accepted the nomination for vice president. A little more than a month later, Beau Biden deployed to Iraq and served there for one year — except for a trip home in January 2009 to see his father take the oath of office as vice president.

Beau Biden was awarded the Bronze Star.

A statement from Vice President Joe Biden announcing the death of his son Beau Biden:

It is with broken hearts that Hallie, Hunter, Ashley, Jill and I announce the passing of our husband, brother and son, Beau, after he battled brain cancer with the same integrity, courage and strength he demonstrated every day of his life.

The entire Biden family is saddened beyond words. We know that Beau’s spirit will live on in all of us—especially through his brave wife, Hallie, and two remarkable children, Natalie and Hunter.

Beau’s life was defined by service to others. As a young lawyer, he worked to establish the rule of law in war-torn Kosovo. A major in the Delaware National Guard, he was an Iraq War veteran and was awarded the Bronze Star. As Delaware’s Attorney General, he fought for the powerless and made it his mission to protect children from abuse.

More than his professional accomplishments, Beau measured himself as a husband, father, son and brother. His absolute honor made him a role model for our family. Beau embodied my father’s saying that a parent knows success when his child turns out better than he did.

In the words of the Biden family: Beau Biden was, quite simply, the finest man any of us have ever known.

Joe & Beau Biden – Our condolences to the Biden family

On a personal note, I had a sister that passed away far too young from brain cancer and my prayers go out to the Biden family that they find peace. Also, I am no fan of the political policies, beliefs an agenda of Vice President Joe Biden and Lord only knows we make fun of him because he gives us so much material to do so, but today my heart goes out to this man as no one person should ever have to experience the death and pain that this man has suffered.  In December 1972, Joe Biden received a phone that his wife, Neilia, and three children had been in a horrible car crash on the way home from purchasing the family Christmas tree. His wife and daughter had died, and his two sons, Beau and Hunter, were critically injured. Now tragically, VP Biden has lost Beau to cancer. Our condolences go out to the Biden family.

His wife, Neilia, and three children had been in a horrible car crash on the way home from purchasing the family Christmas tree. His wife and daughter had died, and his two sons, Beau and Hunter, were clinging to life. Having just turned 30, Joe Biden raced home to Wilmington and considered never taking the oath of office.

Through the support of other senators, Biden agreed to be sworn in the next month at the hospital bedside of Beau and Hunter. Eventually venturing to Washington, Biden decided that he would take the train every morning from Wilmington and return every night.

“As a single parent, he decided to be there to put us to bed, to be there when we woke from a bad dream, to make us breakfast, so he’d travel to and from Washington, four hours a day,” Beau Biden told the Denver crowd on Aug. 27, 2008, in the speech that introduced the world to a story that his father had told many times.