President Obama Reads Tearful Eulogy at Vice President Joe Biden's Son Beau's Funeral
Vice President Joe Biden laid his son Joseph "Beau" Biden III to rest today in Wilmington, Delaware.
President Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton and members of Congress were among the over 1,000 mourners who gathered at St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church to pay their respects to the Biden family, which included Beau's wife Hallie and children Hunter and Natalie.
Beau, the former Delaware attorney general, died on May 30 at age 46 of brain cancer.
Obama gave a tearful eulogy at the funeral, Gen. Raymond Odierno presented a Legion of Merit military award in Beau's memory. Beau's two siblings, Hunter and Ashley, also spoke, while Chris Martin honored Beau by singing "Til Kingdom Come" during the ceremony. According to the Biden family, Martin volunteered to perform after learning that Beau was a big Coldplay fan.
"Beau Biden was an original," Obama said at the service. "He was a good man, a man of character, a man who loved deeply and was loved in return."
Beau worked as a prosecutor for nearly a decade before serving two terms as Delaware's attorney general. He also served a one-year deployment in Iraq in 2008 and was awarded the Bronze Star. In 2010, he suffered a stroke and three years later, he was diagnosed with brain cancer, which he was battling at the time of his death.