Neilia Hunter


Neilia Hunter Biden was an American educator. She was the first wife of U.S. senator and vice president Joe Biden and mother of Hunter, Beau and Naomi.

Early life, education and marriage

Hunter was born on July 28, 1942 in Skaneateles, New York, to Louise and Robert Hunter. She attended Penn Hall, a secondary boarding school in Pennsylvania. She was active in the schools French club, hockey, swimming, and student council. After secondary school, she went on to attend Syracuse University and was a school teacher in the Syracuse City School District. She was related to former Auburn, New York city councilman Robert Hunter. Hunter first met Joe Biden in Nassau, Bahamas, while Biden was on spring break. Biden shortly after moved to Syracuse and attended law school. The couple married on August 27, 1966. After wedding, the Bidens moved to Wilmington, Delaware, where Biden was on the New Castle County Council. They had three children: Robert Hunter, Joseph Robinette "Beau" and Naomi. Biden's future wife, Jill, met Hunter in the winter of 1972 and describing: "She had an easy, natural beauty," Biden campaigned to unseat U.S. Senator from Delaware J. Caleb Boggs and Hunter was described as the “brains” of his campaign.

Death and legacy

During the Christmas holiday, shortly after her husband became U.S. senator-elect, Neilia Hunter died along with their one-year-old daughter Naomi. On December 18, 1972, Neilia, along with her daughter Naomi and sons Beau and Hunter, were driving to buy a Christmas tree. Hunter's vehicle was struck in the right-of-way of a truck. Neilia and Naomi died, but her two sons survived the accident. Beau and Hunter were seriously hurt in the accident; Biden was sworn-in at the hospital where his sons were being treated. In a commencement speech at Yale University in 2015, Joe Biden spoke of his late wife saying "Six weeks after my election, my whole world was altered forever. While I was in Washington hiring staff, I got a phone call. My wife and three children were Christmas shopping, a tractor trailer broadsided them and killed my wife and killed my daughter. And they weren’t sure that my sons would live." A park in Wilmington, Delaware, Neilia Hunter Biden Park, is dedicated in her memory.