WASHINGTON — Beau Biden, son of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, has died after battling brain cancer, according to a statement Saturday night from The White House Office of the Vice President.
Beau Biden was 46 years old.
“The entire Biden family is saddened beyond words,” the statement reads. “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.”
The vice president’s statement continues, “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.”
President Obama expressed his sympathies in a statement that read, “Beau Biden believed the best of us all. For him, and for his family, we swing our lanterns higher,” which references a quote from the poet William Butler Yeats.
