Joe Biden’s first wife Neilia Hunter and baby girl died 50 years ago

President Biden's two boys were injured in a car crash

President Joe Biden with his first wife Neilia Hunter Biden. Getty

The wedding announcement for Neilia Hunter and Joe Biden. Public Domain

Mr Biden with his first wife Neilia with sons Hunter and Beau. Neilia and 13-month-old daughter Naomi were killed in a car crash on December 18, 1972. Hunter and Beau sustained injuries, but survived the crash. Getty

Days before Mr Biden lost his wife, Neilia, and baby daughter, Naomi, in a car crash that left his sons badly injured. The News Journal-USA Today Network / Sipa USA

Joe Biden takes his oath of office from US Senate secretary Frank Valeo in son Beau's hospital room with his father-in-law, Robert Hunter, at his side. Bettmann / Getty Images

President Joe Biden arrives at St Joseph on the Brandywine Catholic Church in Wilmington. AP

US President Joe Biden with his sons Beau and Hunter and his wife Jill in an undated photo. AFP

The memorial of US President Joe Biden's late son, Beau Biden is pictured in the village of Sojevo, Kosovo. Reuters

Kosovo's ceremonial guard carry the presidential medal during a presidential medal ceremony for Beau Biden. AFP

Mr Biden and sons Hunter and Beau. Getty

US President Joe Biden, with his wife Jill Biden and members of his family as they salute the crowd on stage after delivering remarks in Wilmington, Delaware, on November 7, 2020. AFP

Mr Biden and first lady Jill Biden married in June 1977 and had one child together, daughter Ashley, as well as raising Hunter and Beau, Mr Biden's two sons with his first wife, Neilia. Getty

Beau Biden passed away in 2015 from brain cancer at the age of 46. AFP

Hunter Biden survived the car crash that occurred 50 years ago. Reuters

Ashley Biden is Mr Biden's daughter with second wife Jill. Getty

Naomi Biden is Mr Biden's oldest granddaughter. AP

Granddaughter Finnegan Biden regularly appeared on the campaign trail with her grandfather. AFP

Granddaughter Maisy Biden is close friends with former first daughter, Sasha Obama. AP

Granddaughter Natalie Biden is the daughter of the late Beau. Reuters

Grandson Robert Hunter Biden II was named after his uncle.

Mr Biden's sister Valerie Biden Owens, right, is highly active in her older brother's political campaigns. AFP

Mr Biden's brother Jim Biden was there for the first senate race in 1972 and the fatal crash. Getty

Daughter-in-law: Hallie Biden is the widow of the late Beau Biden, who she married in 2002. Reuters

Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of the death of President Joe Biden’s first wife, Neilia Hunter Biden.

Mr Biden met her while on spring break from the University of Delaware. He sneaked in to an exclusive beach club in the Bahamas, where he saw her by the swimming pool.

“When she turned towards me, I could see she had a beautiful smile and gorgeous green eyes,” he wrote in his memoir Promises to Keep. “She was lit by the unforgiving journey of a full afternoon sun, and I couldn't see a single flaw.”

Despite their different upbringings ― hers more on the posh side and him being, “just a kid from Scranton, Pennsylvania” — along with opposing political leanings, the two were married in August 1966 with their first son Beau arriving in 1969, followed by son Hunter, and a year later daughter Naomi.

The father of three and his wife set goals and mapped out what would prove to be Mr Biden’s political ascendancy that would lead him to the highest office in the US.

Neilia supported all of her husband’s political aspirations and was a key player in Mr Biden’s first run for the senate. His victory over Republican challenger J Caleb Boggs made him the second-youngest candidate to win a seat in the US Senate.

Two weeks later, on November 20, the young family cut a cake to honour Mr Biden’s 30th birthday. Christmas would be just around the corner and then, in January, the swearing-in ceremony. The Bidens had so much to look forward to.

A week before Christmas Day, Mr Biden headed to Washington to set up his new offices on Capitol Hill, while Neilia and the children stayed behind to go holiday shopping and see Santa. She loaded up the children into the family estate car and headed out for the day.

At around 2.30pm on December 18, 1972, Neilia crashed into an oncoming lorry, launching the vehicle 46 metres into an embankment. The family was taken to hospital where Neilia and Naomi were pronounced dead on arrival.

Beau sustained a broken leg and Hunter, a fractured skull.

Mr Biden wrote in Promises to Keep that for the first time in his life he understood anguish so bad that you want to take your own life — but he stuck around for his sons and took his oath of office in their hospital room, both at his side.

“To lose a child is like having a piece of your soul ripped away. There's a hollowness in your chest, you feel like you're being sucked into it,” Mr Biden said following the Uvalde massacre at a Texas elementary school. “And it's never quite the same.”

In 2015, Mr Biden's son Beau died of brain cancer.

Mr Biden, who keeps a notebook with many of the eulogies he has delivered, has visited countless families suffering from grief — from fallen soldiers to the parents of George Floyd — earning him the nickname of consoler-in-chief.

While giving a speech at Yale University, soon after learning of Beau's cancer diagnosis, Mr Biden said: “There will come a day — I promise you, and your parents as well — when the thought of your son or daughter, or your husband or wife, brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye.

“It will happen.”