Vice President Joe Biden's Mother Has Died - Jean Finnegan Biden

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/01/12/delaware.jean.biden.funeral/index.html

Funeral for vice president's mother set for Tuesday

January 12, 2010 12:29 a.m. EST

President Obama and the first lady will travel to Delaware on Tuesday to attend the funeral of Vice President Joe Biden's mother.

Catherine Eugenia "Jean" Finnegan Biden died Friday at the family's home. She was 92.

The funeral mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. ET Tuesday at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Wilmington.

"At 92, she was the center of our family and taught all of her children that family is to be treasured, loyalty is paramount, and faith will guide you through the tough times. She believed in us and, because of that, we believed in ourselves," Biden said in a statement Friday.

The vice president's father, Joseph Robinette Biden Sr., who was married to Jean Biden for 61 years, died in 2002.

The vice president was Jean Biden's eldest son. Her other survivors include sons James Biden of Pennsylvania and Francis Biden of Florida, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

The Obamas are to arrive at New Castle County Airport about an hour before the service and are to return to Washington by 2 p.m.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/08/bidens-mother-dies/

January 8, 2010, 4:30 pm
Biden’s Mother Dies
By JEFF ZELENY (The New York Times)

Senator Joe Biden with his mother, Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden, at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.Mike Segar/Reuters Senator Joe Biden with his mother, Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden, at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden, the mother of Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., died on Friday in Wilmington, Del. She was 92.

“She was the center of our family and taught all of her children that family is to be treasured, loyalty is paramount and faith will guide you through the tough times,” Mr. Biden said in a statement. “She believed in us, and because of that, we believed in ourselves.”

The vice president was at his mother’s side at the time of her death.

http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/jean-biden-remembered-fondly-in-her-native-scra...

Jean Biden remembered fondly in her native Scranton

BORYS KRAWCZENIUK (STAFF WRITER)
Published: January 8, 2010

In Tom Bell's and Larry Orr's eyes, Jean Finnegan Biden was Harriet Nelson, the 1950s television icon of perfect motherhood.

Long before she was a vice president's mother, Mrs. Biden was the mother of "Joey" Biden, of 2446 N. Washington Ave., in Scranton's Green Ridge section. Mr. Bell and Mr. Orr, two close childhood friends of Vice President Joseph R. Biden, remembered Mrs. Biden lovingly Friday after she died in Wilmington, Del. She was 92.

"She was (always) well-groomed, well-dressed. She used to have a nice dress with an apron on it. I was always impressed when I was a kid because she was just a very engaged mother," Mr. Bell said. "She knew everything about her kids - where they were all the time, what they were doing, what they were thinking. She was always checking on them ... Mrs. Biden was the type of mother that everybody wanted to have. She was really, really, truly kind."

In the early 1950s, her husband, Joseph R. Biden Sr., spent weekdays earning a living in Delaware because jobs were scarce here. His wife stayed in Green Ridge tending to their family.

On Fridays, with her husband on his way home, she would get "all dolled up," putting on a "nice dress" and high heels, Mr. Bell, 66, of Abington Township, said.

"She was really a lovely lady and a real typical mother going back to the 50s when mothers stayed at home," Mr. Orr, 66, of Scranton, said.

"Yeah, she was nice lady, boy, and she was well-respected by that gang," Mr. Bell said of the Biden children. "They didn't screw around with her."

Harriet Nelson could turn into brassy Roseanne Arnold under the right circumstances. When a nun/teacher made fun of the future vice president's stuttering, Mrs. Biden marched into his school and told the nun, "If you ever speak to my son like that again, I'll come back and rip that bonnet off your head. Do you understand me?" Mr. Biden wrote in his autobiography.

Magisterial District Judge James Kennedy of Scranton, 69, grew up near the Bidens, who once tended to his mother when she fell ill.

"My mom knew where to go when she was in trouble, and she would not go anywhere but to the Finnegans," Judge Kennedy said. "Because they took care of her. She was a frail woman. And they were always very kind to my mother."

Mr. Orr said he spent summer days at the Biden home, which Mrs. Biden last visited on Labor Day of 2008 when her son came home during the presidential campaign. She regularly offered her son's friends spaghetti for lunch, treating them "like one of her own."

"I was in the house just about every day. She was like a second mother," Mr Orr said. "We were the apples of her eyes besides her own kids ... She was really a grand lady. I really feel bad. I'm heartbroken about it."

Mrs. Biden never forgot Scranton, reminding her son how proud his old neighbors would be as he moved up the political ladder.

She embraced Mr. Orr at her 90th birthday party a couple of years ago at son James Biden's Philadelphia area home.

"I walked up and she saw me, and she said, 'My God, I practically raised you,'" she said.

When Mr. Bell saw her at a Washington, D.C, party the weekend before her son's inauguration as vice president, she reacted the same way.

"She gave me a big reception when she saw me. 'Get over here, you, I helped raise you,'" Mr. Bell said.

Mr. Bell said he regularly called Mrs. Biden long after the Bidens moved to Delaware.

"I would call Mrs. Biden and just talk to her about Scranton stuff. Because I could talk to her about things that no one else could talk to her about because her own family didn't know what I knew," he said. "And she liked to hear from me. And each time I would (get ready) to hang up ... she'd say, 'Now, Tommy, you call me again.'"

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh45/mennekinpis/20departs20his20polling20pla...

Out on the campaign trail

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/06MW2CB9Xceva/340x.jpg

Joe Biden's mother

http://www3.pictures.gi.zimbio.com/Barack+Obama+Holds+Election+Night+Gathering+T...

Jean Finnegan Biden

http://www.zimbio.com/Jean+Biden

Mother and son...

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/649/slide_649_13064_large.jp...

Jean Biden with President Obama and Vice President Biden

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0gcKdmxdNjbFC/610x.jpg

Loving support

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100108/NEWS/100108030/Jean-Biden-mother-...

As a young boy struggling with a speech impediment and worries about being smaller and poorer than his classmates, Vice President Joe Biden found strength in the words of his mother, Jean.

“Remember Joey,” she would say, as Biden recalled in his autobiography. “You’re a Biden. Nobody is better than you. You’re not better than anybody else, but nobody is better than you.”

http://www.rumromanismrebellion.net/2010/01/08/catherine-eugenia-jean-finnegan-b...

Catherine Eugenia “Jean” Finnegan Biden was born on July 17, 1917, the daughter of the late Ambrose J. Finnegan and the former Geraldine C. Blewitt of Scranton, Pennsylvania. In 1941, she married Joseph Robinette Biden. They were married for 61 years before Mr. Biden passed away in 2002.

Mrs. Biden is survived by her eldest son, Vice President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., his wife Jill Jacobs Biden and their three children, Joseph R. Biden, III, of Wilmington, Delaware, his wife Hallie Olivere Biden and their children, Natalie Paige Biden and Robert Hunter Biden, II; R. Hunter Biden of Washington, D.C., his wife Kathleen Buhle Biden and their children, Naomi King Biden, Finnegan James Biden and Roberta Mabel Biden; and Ashley Blazer Biden of Wilmington, Delaware; and by her daughter, Valerie Biden Owens of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, her husband John T. Owens and their children Valerie James Owens, Cuffe Biden Owens and Catherine Eugenia Owens; and by her two younger sons, James Brian Biden of Merion Station, Pennsylvania, his wife Sara Jones Biden and their children, James Brian Biden, Jr., Caroline Nicole Biden and Nicholas Coleman Biden; and Francis W. Biden of Florida and his daughter, Alana Jaquet Biden.

Details on services for Mrs. Biden, 92, will be available in the coming days. On behalf of the Biden family, Valerie Biden Owens has requested that, in lieu of flowers, those wishing to make a contribution in memory of Mrs. Biden do so to a hospice, the Ministry of Caring in Wilmington, Delaware, or the Naomi Christina Biden Minority Scholarship Fund at Archmere Academy in Claymont, Delaware.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/politics_nation/2010/01/rip_jean_finnegan_biden...

January 08, 2010
RIP, Jean Finnegan Biden

In a statement this afternoon, Vice President Biden announces that his mother, Catherine Eugenia “Jean” Finnegan Biden, "passed away peacefully" today at her home in Wilmington today, "surrounded by her children, her grandchildren, her great-grandchildren and many loved ones."

At 92, she was the center of our family and taught all of her children that family is to be treasured, loyalty is paramount and faith will guide you through the tough times. She believed in us, and because of that, we believed in ourselves. Together with my father, her husband of 61 years who passed away in 2002, we learned the dignity of hard work and that you are defined by your sense of honor. Her strength, which was immeasurable, will live on in all of us.”

During his campaign for vice president, which I covered full time as a reporter for NBC, Biden spoke of his mother at almost every event. The whole Biden family is very close, and even after becoming vice president, Biden traveled home to Wilmington often to be with her, since she did not want to move to Washington.

He also spoke movingly of the role she played in his life as he accepted the nomination for VP in Denver:

I wish that my dad was here tonight, but I am so grateful that my mom, Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden, is here. You know, she taught her children -- all the children who flocked to our house-that you are defined by your sense of honor, and you are redeemed by your loyalty. She believes bravery lives in every heart and her expectation is that it will be summoned.

Failure at some point in everyone’s life is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable. As a child I stuttered, and she lovingly told me it was because I was so bright I couldn’t get the thoughts out quickly enough. When I was not as well dressed as others, she told me how handsome she thought I was. When I got knocked down by guys bigger than me, she sent me back out and demanded that I bloody their nose so I could walk down that street the next day.

After the accident, she told me, “Joey, God sends no cross you cannot bear.” And when I triumphed, she was quick to remind me it was because of others.

My mother’s creed is the American creed: No one is better than you. You are everyone’s equal, and everyone is equal to you.

My parents taught us to live our faith, and treasure our family. We learned the dignity of work, and we were told that anyone can make it if they try.

That was America’s promise. For those of us who grew up in middle-class neighborhoods like Scranton and Wilmington, that was the American dream and we knew it.

http://whitehouse.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/01/08/vice-presidents-mother-jean-dies-...

January 8, 2010
Vice President’s Mother, Jean, Dies at Age 92

Vice President Joe Biden's mother, Catherine Eugenia "Jean" Finnegan Biden, died today at the family home in Wilmington Delaware.

http://current.com/items/91862348_vice-president-joe-bidens-mother-has-died.htm

Vice President's Mother, Jean Finnegan Biden, Passes Away at 92

World News Person of the Week: Jean Biden played a big role in her son's life.

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/national_world&id=7208431

WASHINGTON -- Jean Biden, who raised her son Vice President Joe Biden to believe in what he called "America's creed... everyone is your equal," died Friday after falling seriously ill in recent days. She was 92.

In a statement, the vice president said she died in Wilmington surrounded by her family and loved ones. She had suffered a broken hip in a fall in March 2009.

"Together with my father, her husband of 61 years who passed away in 2002, we learned the dignity of hard work and that you are defined by your sense of honor," he said in the statement. "Her strength, which was immeasurable, will live on in all of us."

Joe Biden Jr. was first elected to the Senate in 1972, shortly before his 30th birthday. His mother helped out by organizing coffee klatches - part of a family effort that also included Biden's father, sister and brothers.

"Those of you who have met my mom, you know she's fairly politically astute, and she still runs the show," the vice president quipped shortly after she fell last year.

"You think I'm joking? I'm not," he said.

The former Catherine Eugenia Finnegan was born July 7, 1917, in Scranton, Pa. In 1941, she married businessman Joseph Biden Sr., with whom she had four children. The couple moved from Scranton to Claymont, Del., in 1953, when their eldest son, Joe, was 10 years old.

According to Biden's 2007 autobiography, "Promises to Keep," his mother had some reservations about whether he should risk a promising career as a young lawyer to enter politics.

"You're not going to run for Senate and ruin your reputation, are you?" he recalled his mother asking.

"And once Mom was reassured that my future was safe, win or lose, she would do anything," Biden wrote.

Biden was elected vice president as Barack Obama's running mate. In his speech at the Democratic National Convention in August 2008, he paid tribute to his mother, who was in the audience.

"My mother's creed is the American creed: No one is better than you," he said. "Everyone is your equal, and everyone is equal to you. My parents taught us to live our faith, and to treasure our families. We learned the dignity of work, and we were told that anyone can make it if they just try hard enough."

Biden said he also learned honor and loyalty from his mother.

"When I got knocked down by guys bigger than me, and this is the God's truth, she sent me back out the street and told me, 'Bloody their nose so you can walk down the street the next day.' And that's what I did."

Raised in a family with a strong Irish Catholic tradition, Jean Biden leaned on her faith in comforting her eldest son after his wife and daughter were killed in a car crash in December 1972, the month after he was elected to the Senate. His two sons were seriously injured.

"After the accident, she told me, 'Joey, God sends no cross that you cannot bear,"' Biden recalled.

In his autobiography, Joe Biden recalled being mocked by a seventh-grade nun for his stuttering, an incident that sent his mother to his school in a fury, her children in tow.

"If you ever speak to my son like that again, I'll come back and rip that bonnet off your head. Do you understand me?" she told the nun.

Joe Biden also recalled how when his mother couldn't find a pair of cufflinks for him to wear to an eighth-grade dance, she fashioned a pair from nuts and bolts, which left him mortified.

"Now look, Joey, if anybody says anything to you about these nuts and bolts, you just look them right in the eye and say 'Don't you have a pair of these?"' she told him.

Jean Biden is survived by the vice president, daughter Valerie Biden Owens of Kennett Square, Pa., and sons James Brian Biden of Merion Station, Pa., and Francis W. Biden of Florida. She had 10 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Details of services will be released in coming days, the vice president's office said.