Joe Biden’s political and personal support system — Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden is also a dedicated educationist who carries the cause with her wherever she goes.
U.S. Presidential elections are less than three weeks away and numerous voters have already casted their votes. America is all set to choose its next president amid the unusual times that place the stakes even higher. Going by the polls, Joe Biden has successfully maintained his significant lead over Donald Trump that began right during the onset of the presidency race.
This makes it important to acquaint the country to the woman who might be the First Lady of the United States in a little more than three months — Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden.
Who is Jill Biden?
Former Vice President Joe Biden’s wife Jill Biden is a woman whose entire life has been an ode to education. The 69 years old educator is a community college professor who is not very fond of the spotlight. She is currently on a break from her role of an educator for the first time since 1981 to stand by her husband in the run for presidency.
Jill Biden was born in New Jersey to Donald Carl Jacobs who was a bank teller and Boney Jean Jacobs, a homemaker. She started to pursue a degree in fashion merchandising but soon decided to shift gears towards a major in English. She attended University of Delaware, her home state, where she met her first husband, Bill Stevenson. Jill divorced him in 1975.
Jill Biden spent 13 years after her graduation, teaching English to children in public school and also taught at an adolescents psychiatric hospital. She later went on to get her master’s degree education from West Chester State College and another one in English from Villanova University.
Video: Know Jill Biden
The Bidens — How it started and How’s it going
Joe Biden met Jill Jacobs in 1975, the time when the former vice president’s life was in a turmoil. Joe Biden lost his first wife and one year old daughter Naomi in a car accident in 1972. After the incident, Biden almost gave up his political career to take care of his two sons, Beau and Hunter, who were also severely injured in the accident.
Biden and Jacob’s blind date turned out to be a life changer for the Democrat candidate, the point from where the broken family started taking shape again. Three years later, the couple got married in 1977 and had their child in 1980.
Joe wrote in his memoir ‘Promises to Keep’ in 2007 —
She (Jill) gave me back my life. She made me start to think my family might be whole again.
In the Democrat National Convention, Jill Biden said in her speech —
How do you make a broken family whole? The same way you make a nation whole: with love and understanding and with small acts of kindness.
Jill Biden as the Second Lady from 2008 to 2106
This is what makes Jill stand out- she is the first second lady of the United States who has a full time job outside White House while her husband was serving the administration as vice president. Jill Biden was a full time professor at Northern Virginia Community College while Joe Biden was the vice president under the Obama administration.
What adds more volume to Jill’s commitment to education is this —
Mrs. Biden only attended the vice presidential campaigns for her husband in 2008 on weekends when she didn’t have the classes to take. Even while campaigning, she would grade papers in the campaign bus while traveling from one state to another with Obamas.
In an interview with People Magazine, Michelle Obama talked about Jill Biden’s commitment to her profession —
Jill is always grading papers. Which is funny because I’d forget, ‘Oh yeah, you have a day job!’ And then she pulls out her papers and she’s so diligent and I’m like, ‘Look at you! You have a job! Tell me! Tell me what it’s like!
In an interview with CBS News, Jill talked about her wish to continue her profession of teaching even if Joe Biden gets elected to Washington. She said —
If we get to the White House, I’m gonna continue to teach. It’s important, and I want people to value teachers and know their contributions, and lift up the profession.
America’s First Teacher — Jill Biden
As the second lady of the U.S. Jill Biden in 2009 took up an initiative to spread awarness about the importance of community colleges. She even promoted connections between community colleges and local businesses later in 2012 during ‘Community College to Career’ bus tour.
Furthermore, Mrs. Biden is also actively vocal about benefits for military families. In 2011, she along with Michele Obama founded the Joining Forces Initiative and paid several visits to the rahabiliation centres in Texas for the amputees and burn victims.
Jill Biden has stood like a rock by her husband throughout the phases of his political career — in 1988 during his first presidential run, 2008 as the vice president and another shot at accessing the oval in 2020. She not only made Biden family a whole again, but also stayed true to her career and didn’t compromise with her choices and values even when she was the second lady of the U.S.
