Upper St. Clair committeeman takes credit for Joe Biden’s entry into politics
Joe Biden, then a senator from Delaware, autographed this photo to Don Williams in 1985.
Don Williams, an Upper St. Clair Democratic committeeman, was among those who gathered in November 2017 at Washington High School for a nominating mini-convention in the former 18th Congressional District.
From left, Don Williams, then-Vice President Joe Biden, and Mary Lou Williams posed for a picture at the White House in 2015.
Don Williams was a Democratic committeeman and candidate for state legislature in Delaware in 1970 when a newbie interested in running for New Castle County Council showed up at a meeting of the party.
That newbie’s name was Joe Biden.
“We lived in a suburban district called Brookmeade,” said Don Williams’ wife, Mary Lou. “He was a neighbor of ours, but we hadn’t known him.”
Don Williams checked a list of voters for their area and saw Biden’s name was not among them because he was registered in another county.
The legislative candidate’s advice to the wannabe county councilman: The first thing you have to do is register in New Castle.
Little Delaware has only three counties, and New Castle County is home to Wilmington, the largest city with a population of just over 70,000.
During a break in the action in November 2017 as Democratic delegates met in a mini-convention at Washington High School – a gathering that selected Conor Lamb as a nominee for the 18th Congressional District – Williams told of politicking with Biden.
They were a tag-team, going around neighborhoods and knocking on doors together, he said.
Biden may have been new to politics, but Williams’ Democratic roots stretch back to 1936, when Frank Williams of Bala Cynwyd, Montgomery County, took 4-year-old Don to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia to see the re-nomination of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Biden won the council seat, but Williams, a chemical engineer for DuPont and Democratic committeeman since 1957, did not wind up in the Delaware state Legislature.
Williams fractured a hip in March and as a patient in the Friendship Village Health Center, was unavailable for an interview about Biden on Monday, the day that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders endorsed the former vice president as this year’s presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee. On Tuesday, former President Barack Obama also endorsed his 2008 and 2012 running mate, and on Wednesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren joined them.
Mary Lou Williams, a retired school nurse, picked up the story from 1972, when Biden, the county councilman, mounted a successful run for U.S. Senate. But tragedy struck when Biden’s wife, Neilia, and their daughter, Naomi, died in a car crash just before Christmas of that year, a crash that also injured their sons, Beau and Hunter.
“He almost didn’t take office,” Mary Lou Williams said. “He still went home every day (from Washington, D.C.) to Wilmington.”
The senator from Delaware launched unsuccessful bids for the presidency in 1988 and 2008, but the latter effort caught Obama’s attention when vetting vice presidential choices, and the Obama-Biden ticket was twice victorious.
In 2012, Don and Mary Lou Williams moved to Friendship Village to be closer to one of their two daughters and her family.
Beau Biden died in 2015 after being diagnosed with brain cancer, and the Williamses sent a memorial contribution.
Valerie Biden Owens, sister of the then-vice president, got in touch with them to tell them her brother was trying to reach them.
The Williamses were driving to Ocean City, N.J., when Don’s cell phone rang and Mary Lou answered it. A man asked if Don Williams was available to speak to the vice president, who then got on the line to thank them for the memorial contribution.
Mary Lou Williams is from Carbon County in Northeastern Pennsylvania, the same part of the state from which Biden hails, Scranton, Lackawanna County.
The Williamses watched events unfold last year when Biden announced a 2020 run for the presidency and saw revelations about Hunter Biden and Burisma Holdings Ltd., based in Kiev, Ukraine, come to light during the impeachment of President Trump.
“We thought it was pretty sad that he was going after Joe like that, when it had nothing to do with Joe or Hunter,” Mary Lou Williams said.
And 2020 at first did not appear promising for Biden, who finished a poor fourth in the Iowa caucus and slipped into fifth place in New Hampshire.
“This year I was just hopeful,” Williams said. “It seemed to take a lot to get him back in position.”
The re-positioning occurred in late February in the South Carolina primary, and Biden hasn’t looked back since.
Asked for her impression of Biden, Williams said, “He’s such an honest man and a helpful man in any situation.”
Pennsylvania moved its primary to June 2, and Democrats will see the names of Sanders, Biden and Tulsi Gabbard, a congressional representative from Hawaii, on their ballots. President Trump has two opponents on the Republican ticket, William Weld, former governor of Massachusetts, and Rocky De La Fuente of San Diego, Calif., who ran as a Democrat in 2016.