Biden attends private church mass on anniversary of wife, child deaths

by Julia Mueller - 12/18/22 3:11 PM ET

AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden walk between tombstones to attend Mass at St. Joseph on the Brandywine Catholic Church in Wilmington, Del., on Dec. 18, 2022, the 50th anniversary of the car crash that killed Biden’s first wife Neilia Hunter Biden and 13-month-old daughter Naomi.

President Biden on Sunday attended a private church mass with his family to mark the 50th anniversary of the deaths of his first wife and daughter.

The White House said the president and first lady Jill Biden attended a private memorial mass with family at St. Joseph on the Brandywine Roman Catholic Church in Greenville, Del.

On this day in 1972, 30-year-old Neilia Biden and baby daughter Naomi Biden died in a car crash as they set out to buy a Christmas tree with the couple’s three children.

Sons Hunter and Beau Biden suffered injuries but survived the crash, which occurred shortly after President Biden had been elected to the Senate and nearly curtailed his political career.

Biden remarried five years later, in 1977, and together he and Jill Biden had daughter Ashley Biden.

Hunter Biden, Ashley Biden and several of the president’s grandchildren were also in attendance during the mass and a visit to the family’s gravesites, per the White House pool report.

Beau Biden died of brain cancer in 2015, at age 46, during President Biden’s tenure as vice president. The death reportedly contributed to his decision not run for the White House as the Obama administration ended.

The president has discussed his personal experience with grief throughout his political career and has been open about his losses.