Jean Biden, mother of vice president, dies

Jean Biden, 92, who helped her son Joseph R. Biden Jr. in his political rise as a U.S. senator from Delaware and as a successful candidate for the vice presidency, died Jan. 8 in Wilmington, Del. She had suffered a broken hip in a fall in March 2009.
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JEAN BIDEN, 92: Supported son's political dreams
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Biden's 92-year-old mother dies

The former Catherine Eugenia Finnegan was born July 7, 1917, in Scranton, Pa. In 1941, she married businessman Joseph R. 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. Joseph Biden Sr. died in 2002 at age 86.

According to Biden's 2007 autobiography, "Promises to Keep," his mother had 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," Biden wrote, "she would do anything." He was first elected to the Senate in 1972, shortly before his 30th birthday.

Biden was elected vice president as Barack Obama's running mate. In Biden's 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, Mrs. 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.

In his autobiography, 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.

Besides the vice president, survivors include her three other children, Valerie Owens of Kennett Square, Pa., James Brian Biden of Merion Station, Pa., and Francis Biden of Florida; 10 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.