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Beau Biden, Vice President's Son, Remembered In Delaware Service

Mourners wait to greet the Biden family and pay respects at the viewing of Beau Biden at St. Anthony of Padua in Wilmington, Del., on Friday.
William Bretzger AP
Mourners wait to greet the Biden family and pay respects at the viewing of Beau Biden at St. Anthony of Padua in Wilmington, Del., on Friday.

Updated at 11 a.m. ET

Beau Biden, the eldest son of the vice president, a former Delaware attorney general and Iraq War veteran, was being laid to rest today following his death a week ago from brain cancer.

President Obama was to deliver a eulogy.

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Coldplay's lead singer, Chris Martin, was to perform at the service as a soloist.

Along the route to St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church in Wilmington, where the service was held, several onlookers held signs reading "God bless the Biden family" and "God bless Beau and Joe" as the motorcade drove past. The Bidens looked on as members of the New Castle county police sat at attention atop Clydesdales, a bagpipes band played and the motorcade came to a stop.

Ahead of the service, mourners lined up for blocks to pay their respects.

Joseph Robinette "Beau" Biden III, 46, served two terms as attorney general and was widely viewed as a likely gubernatorial candidate. A major in the Delaware Army National Guard, he was deployed to Iraq in 2008, returning home a year later. He was awarded the Bronze Star for his service.

In 2010, he suffered a stroke and three years later was diagnosed with brain cancer and had a lesion removed and he underwent radiation and chemotherapy. The cancer went into remission. Last month, however, he was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., and died on May 30.

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In a statement released after his son's death, Vice President Biden said "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."

The Associated Press notes: "His death drew passionate expressions of sympathy from across the political spectrum, the sense of sadness heightened by the tragedy that the Biden family has endured over the years."

In 1972, a car accident killed Joe Biden's first wife, Neilia, and infant daughter, Naomi. Beau and Hunter Biden, 4 and 3 at the time, were injured in the crash. For five years, before he married his second wife, Jill, Joe Biden raised the boys as a single father.

At the time of that fatal accident, Joe Biden was newly elected to the U.S. Senate. He was sworn in at the hospital, at his sons' bedside, and began to commute daily from D.C. to Delaware to spend more time with his children.

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