All About Joe Biden’s Late Parents, Catherine 'Jean' Biden and Joseph R. Biden Sr.

Joe Biden’s parents were his biggest supporters as he began his journey into politics more than half a century ago.

Even though Catherine Eugenia “Jean” Finnegan and Joseph R. Biden Sr. came from different backgrounds, they hit it off right away and by 1941, the couple married. A year later, Joe Sr. and Jean welcomed their eldest son, Joseph R. Biden Jr., and went on to become parents to three more children: Valerie, James and Francis.

Though the family experienced financial hardships as Joe and his siblings were growing up, Jean and Joe Sr. always made sure their children were cared for and supported. They instilled them with strong personal values and taught them the importance of being present for the people they loved.

“I cannot remember a single time in my entire life — and I mean this without fear of contradiction — I can’t think of a single time he put his personal interest or his personal comfort before that of his children. Never once,” Joe said of his dad while accepting the Father of the Year Award in 2016.

The president continued, “When he needed a new suit but we needed shoes or a blazer for that first Holy Communion, or my sister needed a dress for the prom, it was always hers first. Always us first.”

Jean and Joe Sr. also taught their children the importance of family sticking together, exactly as they did when Joe began his political career. Not only did they support his political goals, but they were also on the frontlines of his earliest campaigns.

“My dad used to say, ‘Family is the beginning, the middle, and the end,’ ” Joe shared in a speech at the White House in 2023.

Here’s everything to know about Joe Biden’s parents, Catherine "Jean" Biden and Joseph R. Biden Sr.

Jean and Joe Sr. met while they were in high school

Joe Sr. was born in Baltimore, Md. but spent most of his childhood in Wilmington, Del. Right before his senior year of high school, his father’s job was transferred to Scranton, Pa. where Joe Sr. finished out his education. Due to his privileged upbringing, Joe Sr. didn’t quite fit in with his new classmates, until he met his future wife Jean.

“He was something the Scranton Catholic schools had never seen, and his classmates gave him a pretty hard time for being such a swell. But my mom — Jean Finnegan of North Washington Avenue — fell head over heels in love,” Joe wrote in his 2007 memoir Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics.

The couple married in Scranton in May 1941.

They welcomed four children

As a young married couple living in Scranton, Jean and Joe Sr. welcomed their eldest son, Joe, in 1942. Three years later, shortly after the family moved to Boston, Mass., their only daughter Valerie was born. In 1949, the family expanded again with the addition of their son James “Jim,” and in 1953, their youngest son Francis “Frank” was born.

Despite an age gap between the siblings, Jean and Joe Sr. fostered a bond between all of their children, which still exists to this day.

“It all comes from my mom and dad,” Valerie told PEOPLE in 2022 about the siblings’ strong bond. “They tried to instill three basic values in my three brothers and me: family and faith and responsibility to take care of one another, and then a greater responsibility to the community at large.”

She continued, “And they told us, honest to God, from the beginning, that we were a gift to one another. There was nothing closer than brothers and sisters."

The Bidens led an affluent lifestyle until Joe Sr. faced several business hardships

When Joe Sr. was a teenager, he spent his summers in Baltimore, Md. with his cousin Bill Sheen Jr. and his family. The Sheen family had amassed wealth through a sealant invented for cemetery vaults and through his relatives, Joe Sr. was able to live an affluent lifestyle. In Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics, Joe shared that his father learned to fly planes, rode horses and dressed in fancy clothing.

In the midst of World War II, the Sheen family gained a contract with the military to put their sealant on merchant marine ships leaving the United States. Joe Sr. joined the business and began running their Boston operation, earning enough money for a luxurious life for his wife Jean and their young son.

When the war ended, Joe Sr. had saved up enough money to begin his own business venture. He partnered with an old friend to buy a building in Boston, in the hopes of starting a furniture company. Unfortunately, before the deal could go through, the partner allegedly ran off with all the money.

“My dad refused to press charges. The money was already gone; besides, the guy had been his friend. ‘I can’t do that,’ he told my mother. ‘I’m the godfather to his daughter,’ ” the president wrote in his memoir.

With the little money he had left, Joe Sr. began a crop-dusting business in New York with a friend who had been a pilot in the war. Shortly after the family relocated to Long Island, the business faltered, leaving the family to face financial hardships.

The family lived with Jean’s parents for several years

Following Joe Sr.’s business failures, the family moved to Scranton to live with Jean’s parents. Along with their young children, Joe Sr. and Jean were also living with Jean’s brother Edward and an aunt named Gertie.

“By the time I was ready to start school in 1947, we were back in Scranton — and broke. Mom, Dad, Val, and I moved to Grandpop Finnegan's house on North Washington, the house where Mom had grown up,” Joe shared in Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics.

Joe Sr. began to take odd jobs, working at farmers markets and commuting to Delaware just to clean boilers for a heating and air conditioning company. Despite the struggle, Joe says his father’s perseverance taught him “constancy, effort, and work” as well as how to shoulder “burdens with grace.”

Through it all, Joe has fond memories of his formative years in Scranton, with friends recalling camping in the backyard, taking part in a Little League Baseball team and playing in the woods.

“It was an innocent time. It really was. There were no drugs or anything like that. We played baseball, went to the movies,” his childhood friend Larry Orr told The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2008. Although his family eventually moved away from Scranton, Joe often returned for summers and holidays.

Joe and his siblings were primarily raised in Delaware

When Joe was 10, his family relocated to Delaware with the promise of better work opportunities for his father. While it was admittedly a difficult move for Joe away from his friends and school, his mother made sure to make it a positive experience.

“My mom, who was born and raised in Scranton, determined to see it as my dad did; she refused to see it any other way. This was a wonderful opportunity. We'd have a fresh start. We'd make new friends. We were moving into a brand-new neighborhood, to a brand-new home,” Joe wrote in Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics.

The family first lived in the Claymont area and later moved to the Mayfield neighborhood. Eventually, they settled in Wilmington, where Joe and his siblings spent the rest of their childhood.

Joe Sr. worked as a car salesman and a real estate agent

When the Biden family relocated to Delaware, Joe Sr. got a job at a used car dealership. He became a successful salesman and manager — although at one point he quit his job in protest of the owner’s treatment of his employees.

The owner, who liked to hand out silver dollars to customers, decided that at a Christmas party, he would throw the coins from a bucket while employees scoured the ground for change.

“The owner took a bucket of silver dollars, threw them on the floor, and watched from above as the salesmen, secretaries, and mechanics scrambled around the dance floor scrounging for change. Dad sat frozen for a second, then he stood up, took my mom's hand, and walked out of the party. He'd quit his job in protest,” Joe explained in Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics.

While Joe Sr. left his job managing the car dealership, he went to find another job in auto sales. He worked in the industry up until the 1970s when Joe began his political career, then opting to instead work in real estate.

“After 1972, he gave up car sales and went into real estate. He didn’t want a United States senator to have a used-car salesman for a dad,” Valerie once said, according to The New York Times.

They raised their children in Catholicism

As their children grew up, Jean and Joe Sr. instilled them with the importance of religion. As practicing Catholics, they attended mass every weekend and their children attended Catholic schools.

Looking back, Joe said that Sundays spent at church became a tradition for the family and taught him the “idea of self, of family, of community [and] of the wider world.”

“Sunday was different; that day was reserved for family. It started with Mass. My attendance was not optional. The entire Finnegan clan rode over to Saint Paul’s Catholic Church together, and church always felt like an extension of home,” the president wrote in his memoir.

Joe Sr. was incredibly involved in his son’s campaigns

When Joe was first entering the world of politics, it was his father who encouraged him to run for office. Although Jean was hesitant about her son walking away from his career as a lawyer, her husband and son reassured her. In fact, Joe Sr. had initially wanted his son to run for governor but Joe opted to work towards a seat in the Senate first.

“At first my dad tried to talk me into running for governor but I told him I didn’t want to be a damn old administrator. I wanted to come to Washington and get something accomplished. He calls me champ now,” he said in a 1974 interview with The Washingtonian. “My dad never went to college and he had never been involved in politics until I started campaigning. But he loves it.”

As Joe began his campaign, his family was right by his side. His mother organized coffee chats to foster Joe’s connection with the community while his father often appeared onstage at rallies and campaigned door-to-door. Joe Sr. eventually became such a presence that people began to confuse him for an actual candidate.

“Everyone thought my dad was the candidate, because he was very distinguished looking,” Valerie told NPR in 2007. The father-son duo ended up having to wear pins that read, “I’m Joe Biden Sr.” and “I’m Joe Biden U.S. Senator.”

Joe Sr. helped shape his son’s personal values

Growing up, Joe Sr. and Jean made sure to instill their children with strong personal values that have stuck with them throughout their lives. In fact, some of these values remain core principles of Joe’s campaigns and presidency. Looking back, Joe said it was his father who taught him the importance of integrity.

“My dad was a really decent, honorable man, very well-read ... got into college ... but could never afford to go. One of his great regrets. But he was a well-read man, and I learned so much from him just by his example,” Joe said during a speech at the White House in 2023.

The president continued, “He didn’t preach much, but my dad used to say, ‘Joey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck; it’s about your dignity.  It’s about whether or not you can show respect.  It’s about whether or not ... you’re going to be able to look at your kids and say, ‘Honey, everything is going to be okay.’ ”

Joe Sr. also helped shape Joe’s views of homosexuality during a time when it was criminalized across the nation. Back when he was a teenager, Joe witnessed two men kissing for the first time — and Joe Sr. told him that their relationship was completely valid.

“I was a senior in high school and my dad was dropping me off ... [I was] about to get out of the car and I look to my right, and two well-dressed men in suits kissed each other,” Joe said during a 2023 appearance on The Daily Show. “I turned and looked at my dad, and he said, ‘Joey, it’s simple, they love each other.’ ... It's just that simple.”

Joe’s father also helped inspire his continued efforts to end violence against women and sexual assault on college campuses through the Beau Biden Foundation and his It’s On Us campaign.

“My father said the cardinal sin of all sins is for a man to raise a hand to a woman,” Joe said in a 2018 interview with feminist media brand, MAKERS. “He taught us that if we saw something speak up, speak out. Do something. As long as there’s a breath in me, I’m going to be engaged in this issue.”

They were buried together in Delaware

In September 2002, Joe Sr. died at age 86 following several weeks of failing health. Jean went on to stand by Joe’s side at the Democratic National Convention in 2008 and was there as he took office as vice president. Jean later died at Joe’s home in Delaware in January 2010 at age 92.

“My mother, Catherine Eugenia ‘Jean’ Finnegan Biden, passed away peacefully today at our home in Wilmington, Delaware, surrounded by her children, her grandchildren, her great-grandchildren and many loved ones,” Joe shared in a statement, per NPR.

He continued, “At 92, she was the center of our family and taught all of her children that family is to be treasured, loyalty is paramount and faith will guide you through the tough times. She believed in us, and because of that, we believed in ourselves."

Joe added that his parents' bond informed the lessons they taught their kids. "Together with my father, her husband of 61 years who passed away in 2002, we learned the dignity of hard work and that you are defined by your sense of honor," the president wrote. "Her strength, which was immeasurable, will live on in all of us.”

Jean was buried by her husband’s side in Delaware.