Biden to pay respects to former Pennsylvania first lady Ellen Casey, who died last week in Scranton

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

President Joe Biden is traveling to Pennsylvania on Thursday to privately pay his respects to the mother of U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, who died last week in Biden's hometown of Scranton.

The president is expected to arrive before visiting hours for Ellen Casey, who also was a former first lady of Pennsylvania, at St. Peter’s Cathedral.

Casey, the widow of Pennsylvania Gov. Robert P. Casey and the mother of Casey, D-Pa., died at age 91. Biden issued a statement Monday commemorating her life.

Before boarding the plane, Biden said Ellen Casey was an honorable and decent woman.

“She played an enormous role not just in my life, but everyone’s,” Biden told reporters. “She was an incredible woman, decent, honorable, her values were amazing. And every time I’d go to Scranton over the years, I’d stop and see her. She was a friend.”

Biden also released a lengthy statement earlier this week commemorating her life.

The president, who grew up near the Casey household, said Ellen Casey embodied the “Scranton values,” of family and public service.

Biden, 80, is no stranger to grief or loss, having lost his wife and infant daughter in a 1972 car accident. He lost his eldest son, Beau, to brain cancer in 2015. And he talks often about how these experiences have shaped who he is, first as a U.S. senator, then as vice president and now president.

Ellen Casey lost her husband, who served as governor in the late 80s through the early 90s, to an infection in 2000. The former Democratic governor rose to national prominence for his strong opposition to abortion, which often put him at odds with the Democratic Party.