Beau Biden, Joe Biden’s Son, Dies Of Brain Cancer At 46

Beau Biden, the eldest son of Vice President Joe Biden, has died after a battle with brain cancer. He was 46.

Beau Biden Dies

The White House announced Biden’s death on Saturday in a statement. Beau Biden, who was an Iraq War veteran and served as the attorney general of Delaware, was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2013. After undergoing surgery, he went into remission and was thought to be in good health. The cancer returned, however, in the spring of this year. Beau Biden passed away Saturday night surrounded by his extended family, reported CNN.

“Beau Biden was, quite simply, the finest man any of us have ever known,” Vice President Biden said in a statement. “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.”

President Barack Obama also released a statement to address Biden’s passing.

“Yeats wrote, “I have believed the best of every man. And find that to believe it is enough to make a bad man show him at his best or even a good man swing his lantern higher,” wrote the president quoting Joe Biden’s favorite poet William Butler Yeats.  “Beau Biden believed the best of us all. For him, and for his family, we swing our lanterns higher.”

Beau Biden is survived by his father, step-mother Dr. Jill Biden, his wife Hallie, children Natalie and Hunter, brother Hunter and half-sister Ashley.