# Joe Biden Sr.

Joseph Robinette Biden Sr. (November 13, 1915 – September 2, 2002) was an American car salesman and the father of U.S. President Joe Biden.

## Early life and family history

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Joseph Sr.'s parents were Mary Elizabeth (née Robinette; 1894–1943) and Joseph Harry Biden (1893–1941). Joseph Harry was an oil businessman. and the family had English, French, and Irish descent.$^{:8}$
Biden's paternal second great-grandfather, William Biden (1787–1849), a stonemason, was born in England and emigrated to the United States by 1820, where he settled in Maryland. According to historian Eddy Greenfield, he was born in Sussex, and was christened at St John the Baptist's Church in Westbourne, West Sussex, on 8 March 1789. William was the second child and son of James Byden (born November 1767) and Ann Silverlock (born March 1766), who had married on 16 May 1785. James Byden, Biden's paternal third great-grandfather, was from Pagham. He was the son of Richard Byden, Biden's paternal fourth great-grandfather, and his wife Susan, beyond which the paternal family line cannot be traced. Two other of Biden's second paternal great-grandfathers, Jesse Robinett and Thomas Randle, were slave owners in 19th-century Maryland.
Joe Sr.'s father Joseph Harry started off as a wealthy man but went into debt, forcing him to sell his house at auction. The family moved to Scranton, Pennsylvania soon afterwards.

## Marriage and family life

In Scranton, Biden eventually met Catherine Eugenia "Jean" Finnegan. Despite her family's reservations about Biden, the couple married in 1941. They would have four children together:
* Joseph Robinette "Joe" Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942), politician, serving as 46th President of the United States since 2020. Previously served as Senator from Delaware from 1973 to 2009, and 47th Vice President of the United States from 2009 to 2017, under President Barack Obama.$^{:9}$$^{:5}$
* Mary Valerie Biden Owens (born November 5, 1945), campaign manager and political strategist. Appointed by Barack Obama as advisor to the United Nations 71st General Assembly. She played a pivotal role in all of her brother's political campaigns. She was the campaign manager during all of his Senate elections and for his 1988 and 2008 presidential campaigns, and was a senior advisor to his successful 2020 presidential campaign.
* James Brian "Jim" Biden (born 1949), healthcare executive. According to a The Washington Post profile, he is "known in the family as the one who’s always ready to help" and "has a history of business dealings that resulted in recriminations and lawsuits."
* Francis William "Frank" Biden (born 1953), non-attorney advisor to Bergman Law Group, Boca Raton, Florida.
According to his children, Joe Sr. was a distant parent who did not show affection to his children. However, he did warn his children about the dangers of alcoholism in the Biden family. As a result, his eldest son became a teetotaler. His youngest son Frank, however, became an alcoholic.
Biden was initially wealthy but suffered financial setbacks around the time Joe Jr. was born, and for several years the family lived with Jean's parents. Scranton fell into economic decline during the 1950s and Biden could not find steady work. Beginning in 1953, the family lived in an apartment in Claymont, Delaware, then moved to a house in Wilmington, Delaware. Joseph Sr. later became a successful used-car salesman, maintaining the family in a middle-class lifestyle.

## Death

Joe Biden Sr. died on September 2, 2002. He was buried at St. Joseph on the Brandywine Cemetery in Greenville, Delaware. After his wife's death in 2010, she was buried next to her husband.