'GOD BLESS HIS MEMORY': Obama delivers eulogy at Beau Biden's funeral VIDEO: Family and friends gather to honor the life of Beau Biden VIDEO: Beau Biden's long battle with brain cancer VIDEO: How presidents, vice presidents have dealt with tragedies

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  'GOD BLESS HIS MEMORY': Obama delivers eulogy at Beau Biden's funeral

  PRESIDENT OBAMA fights back tears as he delivers a eulogy at the funeral of Vice President Joe Biden's son Beau, who died last Saturday of brain cancer at 46.
• VIDEO: Family and friends gather to honor the life of Beau Biden
• VIDEO: Beau Biden's long battle with brain cancer
• VIDEO: How presidents, vice presidents have dealt with tragedies

  Politics

  President Obama delivers eulogy at Beau Biden's funeral

  Published June 06, 2015

  FoxNews.com

  
  

  Now Playing Family and friends gather to honor the life of Beau Biden
  

  President Obama fought back tears Saturday as he delivered the eulogy at the funeral for Vice President Joe Biden’s son.
  “God bless his memory and the lives he touched,” Obama said.
  

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  He hugged Joe Biden at the end of his remarks from St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church in Wilmington, Delaware.
  Obama said former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden made a decision as a young boy to live a life of meaning and a life dedicated to others
  The President said Beau Biden found a way to make everyone else feel like they mattered. He said that's because his father taught him that everyone matters.
  Obama added that Beau Biden was the rare politician who prioritized his private life and his family above all else. He said Beau refused to cut corners or trade on his family name.
  The President called Beau Biden the "consummate public servant."
  Beau Biden died a week ago from brain cancer at age 46.
  Before the Mass began, the vice president bowed his head and wiped away tears before entering the church for his eldest son’s funeral.
  Bagpipers played outside the church as mourners arrived.
  The song “Bring Him Home” was sung during the procession.
  Saturday’s funeral capped three days of public mourning in which the vice president and his family have been both the consolers and the consoled.
  Beau Biden's casket lay in honor in the state Senate chamber on Thursday ahead of a public viewing at St. Anthony on Friday. On each day, seemingly endless lines of people streamed through to greet the vice president, whose solemnity at times gave way to his characteristic humanity as he greeted familiar faces with a broad smile, a lingering hug or a fond memory of his son.
  The vice president, whose wife and daughter were killed in a car crash four decades ago, developed a reputation over the years for possessing a deep ability to comfort those in grief, and is often called upon to eulogize fellow American leaders. Saturday's Mass honoring his own son is a reversal of roles of sorts for Biden, who in 2012 spoke of his son's service in Iraq as he comforted a group of grieving military families.
  "When he came home -- it's going to sound strange to you -- we felt almost a little guilty because he came home," Biden said then. "Because there's so many funerals I've attended, so many bases I've visited. And you know, not all losses are equal. Not all losses are equal."
  Other political luminaries like Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton also gathered to pay their respects.
  A prominent political figure in his own right, Beau Biden served two terms as Delaware's attorney general before setting his sights on the governor's mansion. Many imagined his career would mirror that of his father, who represented Delaware for decades in the U.S. Senate before becoming vice president.
  But in 2010, at age 41, Beau Biden suffered a mild stroke, then was diagnosed with brain cancer three years later. He returned to work after what doctors said was a successful operation to remove a small lesion, but his illness returned, and he died last Saturday -- less than two weeks after being admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for aggressive treatment.
  His death drew passionate expressions of sympathy from across the American political spectrum, the sense of sadness heightened by the sheer enormity of tragedy that the Biden family has endured over the years. It was just weeks after Joe Biden was first elected to the Senate in 1972 that Beau, then 3 years old, and his younger brother, Hunter Biden, were injured in the car crash that killed their mother and infant sister.
  White House officials said the choice of Obama to deliver remarks reflected the tight personal relationship that Joe Biden and the president have developed after more than six years together in the White House. In the hours after Beau Biden died, Obama called the vice president to offer his condolences and was invited to give the remarks.
  The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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