She treated every student the same, whether they were a cheerleader or a quiet kid, and she kept her door open if they needed her, said Patricia Smarzo, who was a student of Neilia’s for seventh grade. She was not flamboyant in her dress and makeup or anything.”Īfter graduating from SU in 1964, Neilia taught English at Bellevue Heights until 1968. “She was very beautiful in a very understated way. “She just didn’t try to call attention to herself,” Vanderline said.
While scanning her SU yearbook from 1962, she noticed Neilia wasn’t in the Kappa Alpha Theta group photo, though her name was listed. “When I think back, of all my sisters, in all those years, she was probably the sweetest, kindest, most lovely,” Vanderlinde said. While recruiting for the sorority, Neilia would always rave about the potential new members she spoke with, speaking kindly about everyone she met, said Arlene Vanderlinde, one of Neilia’s sorority sisters. Her extracurricular involvement continued at SU, where she joined the university’s chapter of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority while studying at the College of Liberal Arts. She was the oldest of her siblings, John and Michael.Īs a student at Penn Hall Junior College and Preparatory School, a boarding school in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, Neilia held many roles: She was the president of the international relations club, the photo editor for the Penntonian and a member of the student council, as well as a swimmer and hockey player. She spent her childhood along Skaneateles Lake, where her father owned the Hunter Dinerant in Auburn and managed the Auburn Community College cafeteria. Like them, Neilia had grown up and attended school in central New York. She fostered a comfortable space in her classroom, and she easily connected with her students. Neilia was the teacher every student wanted to have, Spooner said. “When she started speaking, she was exactly what my girlfriend had told me: very soft spoken and beautiful personality, and looking,” Spooner said. She was wearing brown-rimmed glasses and had her hair pulled back. On the first day of the school year, a hot summer morning, Spooner took her seat in the middle of the classroom and glanced up at Ms. “Oh, boy, you’re going to have Neilia Hunter?” her friend said. She had received her teacher assignment in the mail. In the summer before seventh grade, 12-year-old Susan Spooner couldn’t wait to go back to her school, Bellevue Heights. But time and again, despite the haziness that comes with the years passing, everyone says, more than anything, she was kind. They recall that she was reserved, naturally beautiful and modest. Those who knew her in Syracuse now remember only bits and pieces about her. Neilia - who inspired others to see the best in themselves as a teacher, role model, mother and friend - died in a car accident 50 years ago, on Dec. And a lot of his early success, he has said, is tied to meeting Neilia. He doesn’t need to sneak into four-star resorts anymore. and is arguably SU’s most notable alumnus. They later had three children: Beau, Hunter and Naomi.Īlmost 60 years later, Biden has the highest position in the U.S. Mary’s of the Lake Church in Skaneateles, New York. On the fourth and last day of his trip, he’d admit it: “You know we’re going to get married.” Walking back from their first date later that night, Biden couldn’t shake the thought that Neilia was the one. Nobody ever felt smaller around Neilia,” he wrote. “That was her special touch, the way she made everyone feel okay about themselves. And most of all, he learned that she was sincere and always said the right thing, even during his embarrassing moments. He learned that she hoped to teach junior high school in Syracuse in September. That day, he learned Neilia was from Skaneateles, New York, and she was in her last year at Syracuse University. She was so easy to talk to,” Biden wrote in his 2007 memoir Promises to Keep. “Basically I fell ass over tin cup in love-at first sight. “I’m Neilia Hunter.” She looked up at him with her green eyes and smiled, her face illuminated by the afternoon sun. He walked over and sat at the edge of the woman’s lounge chair.
Ultimately, it didn’t matter what side the coin landed on. Fred Sears, the impartial friend of the group, proposed they flip a coin. He wanted to talk to the woman by the pool. The out-of-place college student had snuck in with two friends that spring day in 1964, the men wrapping themselves in the hotel’s beach towels and pretending to be guests. He wasn’t supposed to be there, at the British Colonial Hotel in Nassau, Bahamas. S he made his way to the deck of the swimming pool, Joe Biden noticed the blonde woman sitting in a chaise lounge chair. Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
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