10 things to know about Jill Biden, teacher and wife of Joe Biden
She continued to teach full time when her husband was vice-president, she intends to do the same if she becomes "First Lady". This will not prevent her from being her unofficial chief adviser.
1. "Philly"
She was born in New Jersey on June 3, 1951, but grew up in Philadelphia (“Philly,” for those who live there) in a simple family: a bank teller father, a stay-at-home mom. A sports fan and party girl, Jill married college football player Bill Stevenson at 18. Together, they open the Stone Balloon, a bar near the University of Delaware, which is popular with students. Local artists performed there, including a certain Bruce Springsteen in 1974. The marriage to Stevenson lasted only four years.
2. Neilia
At 19, she went to a Joe Biden campaign rally for the Senate. She does not meet the candidate but shakes hands with his wife, Neilia. “I remember noticing how lovely their family was - the good-looking young senator looking to make the world a better place; his beautiful wife in love, always there to encourage him. And three adorable kids. Barely a month later, Neilia and their one-year-old daughter are killed in a car accident.
3. Model
Jill Biden insists she was never a model, settling for a few low-paid appearances. But one fine day in 1975, his smile on a poster caught the attention of the young senator from Delaware, widowed for three years. The same evening, Joe Biden goes to a date (date) organized by his brother. When he shows up at the door, amazement: it's the girl from the ad! The shock is mutual. Jill, accustomed to eph’s legs and colorful shirts, looks up and down at the tie senator.
4. "Mom"
Jill quickly becomes attached to the two young sons, Beau and Hunter, who survived the accident and adopt him immediately. She will turn down four of Joe's marriage proposals, wanting to be 100% sure. Even if Neilia remains forever in their memory, at the Biden, nobody uses the word "mother-in-law": for the two boys, Jill Biden will always be "Mom" to the point that in 1980, it is they who announce her pregnancy to their father and choose the first name of their little sister, Ashley.
5. "Dr. B."
“Being a teacher isn't what I do, it's who I am,” she says. She gave her speech at the Democratic convention from the classroom where she taught English at a high school in Wilmington. Already the holder of several diplomas, she obtained her doctorate in 2007, at the age of 56. The first female vice president to hold a full-time job, she taught at a local college where her students called her "Dr. B." sometimes not knowing who her husband was. Even if the latter wins in November, "Dr. B." will continue to practice his profession as a teacher.
How do you make a broken family whole? The same way you make a nation whole.
— Dr. Jill Biden (@DrBiden) August 19, 2020
With love and understanding, and with small acts of kindness.
With bravery. With unwavering faith. pic.twitter.com/cbuBHod3Ek
6. "NO"
Joe Biden voted in 2002 for the invasion of Iraq, Jill was totally against it. In 2003, when party pundits gathered at the Biden's house to try to convince him to run for the 2004 presidential election, she was not ready. She sits in a bikini by the pool, "furious" until she explodes. Neither one nor two, she grabs a felt-tip pen, writes "NO" in large letters on her stomach and crosses the living room. Message received. But four years later, she encourages her husband to run for the presidential race.
7. Marathon
Very committed to philanthropy, Jill Biden raced for charitable causes in the 1990s. “I was so out of breath I thought, 'I'm going to run,' she said. My first jog was in my neighborhood in Delaware for about 500 yards. I gradually increased the distance, until I got hooked. She finished the Marine Marathon in 1998, participates in several "5K" and "10K" (5 and 10 km) and still runs every day, when possible.
8. Briefs
The loss of Beau, Biden’s eldest son who died of cancer in 2015 at the age of 46, was an unbelievably hard blow to his adoring father and Jill. “Since Beau's death, I am in pieces, she admits in 2019 in her Memoirs. I feel like a Chinese porcelain object whose pieces have been glued together - the cracks may not be noticeable, but they are there. Protestant, she indicates in the same book that she no longer goes to the temple and "is not ready for sermons and prayers" (but she recently claimed to have regained her faith).
9. Commitment
When Biden chooses Kamala Harris as his running mate, she's the one briefing the committee members. "She's sort of a chief advisor," said Ted Kaufman, Biden's old friend. It's kind of like his relationship with Obama, he was the last person the president listened to [before deciding]. It's the same with Jill. Keenly engaged in the campaign, where she has been seen twice interfering with her husband from aggressive protesters, she will be influential on topics such as education and immigration.
10. Jill and Jane
The friendly respect between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders is known. The relationship between their respective spouses, less. Jane Sanders and Jill Biden got to know each other better during the campaign, and they liked each other. The two have always kept their distance from the suffocating little world of Washington. Jill, Jane said, "think what she says and say what she thinks." The second even made this funny confession to Bernie: “I would vote for you as president, but I think I would vote for Jill as First Lady if I had the choice. "
