The life of Jill Biden, an educator who worked full-time while Joe Biden was Vice President, defends him from protesters, and is a crucial part of his 2020 campaign
Jill Tracy Jacobs was born in Hammonton, New Jersey, on June 3, 1951. Her father was a bank teller while her mother stayed home full time to care for the family's five daughters.
While growing up, Jill moved around a lot, eventually settling in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. She spent most of her childhood there and adopted a slight Philly accent as well as a lifelong love for local sports teams.
Source: Washington Post
When she was 15, she started her first job as a waitress. "From an early age, I knew I wanted my own money, my own identity, my own career," she told Vogue in 2008.
Source: Vogue
Four years later, in 1971, Jill married Bill Stevenson, a former college football player whom she met the summer before graduating high school.
Source: Vogue
That year she also started college at the University of Delaware, majoring in English.
In 1972, she and Stevenson opened the Stone Balloon Tavern and Concert Hall by the University of Delaware. It would go on to become one of the country's most successful college bars.
Playboy magazine once listed the bar and concert hall as "one of the 100 Top College Bars in America," according to its website
The bar hosted iconic American artists, including Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.
Source: Vogue
This wasn't the only job Jill did in her college years. She also modeled for a local agency, but she insists she "wasn't a model."
"I might've done five jobs where you get paid, like, 20 bucks," she told Vogue in 2008. "But I wasn't a model."
By 1975, she and Stevenson had drifted apart and filed for divorce that year. She was in her junior year at the time, and decided to take the year off: "Things were a little too rough, too emotional. But I knew I would finish," she said.
She would go on to graduate with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Delaware in 1975, according to the university.
Source: Vogue
Later that year, she was set up on a blind date with Joe Biden by Joe's brother, Frank. When Joe showed up at her front door, 24-year-old Jill recalled thinking: "Thank God it's only one date."
"The guys I had dated had bell bottoms and clogs. When Joe showed up at my door, I took one look at his perfect suit and his leather loafers and I thought: 'Thank God it's only one date,'" she was quoted as saying in The New York Times.
But when the date was over, she had changed her mind drastically, telling her mother: "Mom, I finally met a gentleman," Vogue reported.
At the time, Joe Biden was a 33-year-old Delaware senator, widowed after a horrific car accident three years prior killed his wife Neilia and one-year-old daughter, Naomi.
A few weeks after the 1972 December election, Neilia's station wagon was hit by a tractor-trailer as she pulled out from an intersection.
Joe and Neilia's sons Hunter and Beau, who were sitting in the backseat with their sister Naomi, survived the accident with minor injuries. Naomi did
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Despite the fact that Joe Biden was nine years older and had two children, he and Jill had an instant connection and fell in love quickly.
"By that time, of course, I had fallen in love with the boys, and I really felt that this marriage had to work. Because they had lost their mom, and I couldn't have them lose another mother," Jill told Vogue of the time.
Source: Vogue
Eventually, she said yes, and they married in an intimate ceremony in New York on June 17, 1977. The couple took the Biden sons on their honeymoon.
The entire family was "all marrying each other," Vogue reported, paraphrasing Joe and Jill.
Despite her husband's very public life, Jill was always wary of the spotlight, didn't like politics, and wanted to make sure that she could still focus on her own ambitions.
Source: Politico
As Joe built his political career, Jill completed a master's degree in education and worked as a teacher — all while pregnant.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden was going to work and commuting from Washington, DC, to Wilmington, Delaware on Amtrak nightly, according to the New York Times.
In 1987, Jill Biden earned a second Master of Arts degree in English from Villanova University, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The couple gave birth to Ashley Blazer Biden on June 8, 1981, and Jill decided to stop working for two years to look after Ashley, Beau, and Hunter.
Despite her husband's 1988 bid for the presidency — which he eventually dropped out of — Jill wasn't very involved in politics.
Source: Vogue
But this changed in 2004 when President George W. Bush was reelected. Then Jill urged Joe to run for president again because she was "so against" the 2003 Iraq war.
"I literally wore black for a week. I just could not believe that he won, because I felt that things were already so bad. I was so against the Iraq War. And I said to Joe: 'You've got to change this, you have to change this,'" she was quoted as saying in The Washington Post.
Meanwhile, at the age of 55, she earned a doctorate in education under her maiden name — Jill Jacobs — at the University of Delaware in 2007.
Source: Los Angeles Times
While Jill rarely campaigned for her husband in previous years, she took on a more public role in his 2008 race, holding a series of events with Michelle Obama.
Source: Politico
But she still continued to teach, only joining her husband on the campaign trail on the weekends.
"My wife, Jill, who you'll meet soon, who's drop-dead gorgeous," Joe Biden told a crowd in Springfield, Illinois, on the day he was announced as Barack Obama's running mate, according to Politico.
"My wife, Jill, she also has a doctorate degree, which is a problem," he added jokingly.
She even continued to teach English at Northern Virginia Community College during Joe's two terms as vice president, becoming the first known Second Lady to work while in the role.
Source: The New York Times
She even deliberately distanced herself from her famous husband. Some of her students didn't even know she was Joe Biden's wife, calling her only by her preferred name, "Dr. B."
While she had pictures of her children and grandchildren at work, she never put one up of her husband.
According to Politico, she also tried to get her accompanying secret service agents to dress so they wouldn't be noticeable.
"My standard line when students ask me if I am married to the VP is to say that I am one of his relatives. That usually quiets them," she once told The New York Times.
Source: USA Today
Meanwhile, she still attended to her duties as Second Lady, including supporting military families, attending the Invictus Games in London, and raising awareness on the value of community colleges.
Source: Agence France-Presse
But during Joe's vice presidency the Bidens were faced with another tragedy: Beau, Jill's stepson, and Joe's son, died of brain cancer in May 2015.
Beau's death led Joe to announce that he wasn't going to run for the 2016 presidential election. Jill stood by his side when he made that announcement at the White House in October 2015.
But when he decided to run in 2020, it was much to do with Jill. According to The New York Times, she was "enthusiastically" in favor of his decision.
Source: The New York Times
Since then, she has tirelessly campaigned for her husband, even pulling out of her teaching responsibilities temporarily to do so.
Source: The New York Times
This campaign is all about you — and together we're going to go all the way to the White House! Chip in what you can to defeat Donald Trump and keep us going: https://t.co/K27HrjyJME pic.twitter.com/bxrxAN7BVG
— Dr. Jill Biden (@DrBiden) March 11, 2020She has taken on a public role as a vocal surrogate for her husband, as well as acted privately as a trusted confidante for him.
Source: The New York Times
"She's like the adviser in chief. Kind of like the relationship [Joe Biden] had with Obama, he'd be the last person in the room — that's Jill", a long-time friend and former senator, Ted Kaufman said of her.
Source: The New York Times
Sometimes Jill even takes on more commitments than her husband, throwing fundraisers, parades, or even house parties.
Source: The New York Times
Her appearance on the campaign trail has also led to some bizarre moments.
Source: The New York Times
At a campaign event in Iowa last November, Joe went off script and nibbled on his wife's finger while she was speaking at an event. She seemed to laugh it off.
Source: Business Insider
Most recently, she jumped up to protect her husband after a protester stormed the stage at his Super Tuesday victory speech in Los Angeles. The moment quickly became a meme, and she was hailed "a hero" online.
Source: Business Insider
But throughout the race, the Bidens have demonstrated a united front, and Joe has looked to his wife to keep him going. "The happiest times I've seen him have been when Jill is doing something," Sen. Kaufmann said.
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