Biden lays mother to rest in Delaware

Vice President Joe Biden eulogized his late mother as the
heart of the family at her funeral Mass Tuesday.

Biden said that Catherine Eugenia “Jean” Biden raised both her
children and her grandchildren and instilled in them courage, respect and
honor.

“That was her creed, that you must be a person of your word, for without
your word you have no honor, and without honor you can’t be a Biden,” the
vice president said at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Wilmington,
Del.

{mosads}Jean Biden died Friday at the age of 92.

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama attended the service,
along with most of the Cabinet, former President Bill Clinton, House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Democratic
Sens. Chris Dodd (Conn.), Ted Kaufman (Del.), Paul Kirk (Mass.) and Arlen
Specter (Pa.).

Jean Biden was buried after the Mass in a private service near Wilmington.

During his eulogy, Vice President Biden thanked both Obama and Clinton for attending
the service.

He said that one of his mother’s favorite photos was from election night in 2008 in
Chicago, just as Obama won the White House.

“Barack with her right arm, and me in her left arm, and as my
granddaughter said, ‘Mom-Mom is leading us out on the stage,’ ” Biden
recounted. “She thought very highly of you, Mr. President.

“And President Clinton,” Biden said. “She thought you were most
like me, or I was most like you.” The roughly 450 attendees at the church
laughed at the line.

Biden then recalled something that Clinton’s wife, Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton, once told him:

“She worried, ‘You and my husband were separated at birth,’ ” Biden
said, recalling Clinton’s remark. “I considered that a compliment.”