Sen. Joe Biden was always the "leader of the pack," his younger sister said — not because he was a bully, but because he had a gift for inspiring people.

"He was always encouraging, always saying, 'Go ahead, just try it,' and other kids looked up to him for that," Valerie Biden Owens said. "They were drawn to him, and they followed him."

But Owens said her brother, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, also was left out at times and ridiculed because he stuttered.

"There was a time he couldn't string four words together," she said. "Nobody likes to be laughed at. But that experience created a deep sense of compassion within Joe, and to this day when he walks into a room, he automatically gravitates to the person standing in the corner and tries to engage them. He knows what it's like, and he doesn't want anyone to ever feel the way he did."

Owens made a brief stop in Lancaster on Thursday morning, meeting Mayor Rick Gray and City Council members for coffee at Square One on North Duke Street.

For the first time since Biden was elected to the U.S. Senate, she is not her brother's campaign manager. Instead, she has hit the campaign trail, stumping up and down the East Coast for Biden and Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama.

Owens, who is three years younger than the 65-year-old senator, spoke at length Thursday about the tight-knit Biden family, of which she is the only sister.

"There were my three brothers and me, and of course I was the princess," she joked. "Our mom stayed at home, and our dad worked all the time as a car salesman — education was key, and we were always taught that we could succeed at anything we put our mind to. That was the push that got Joe into (county) council and eventually the Senate."

That resolve also saw Biden through the darkest hour of his life, Owens said.

Just weeks after Biden was elected to his first term as a senator from Delaware in 1972, his wife, Neilia, and infant daughter, Naomi, were killed in a car accident. His two sons, Hunter and Beau, were seriously injured.

"We were on top of the world for six weeks," Owens, of Kennett Square, said. "And then (their brother) Jimmy called and said to come home. Joe decided he wasn't going to serve … and he wasn't being heroic. He was devastated. Everything was gone. And he wanted to be there for Hunter and Beau. 'Delaware can get another senator, but my boys can't get another father,' he said."

Owens moved in with Biden and his sons, and her brother agreed to assume his Senate seat on a trial basis for six months. He commuted by train to Washington, D.C., from the family's home in Wilmington, Del., every day so he could spend time with his boys, she said.

The boys eventually recovered. Biden remained in the Senate, and several years later he married his wife, Jill, whom Owens calls "the best. Just a really bright lady." They have a daughter, Ashley.

For 36 years, Biden has maintained the practice of commuting every day.

"He's always kept his priorities straight," she said. "He doesn't hang out in Washington. He gets on the train and comes home and we hang out. He's a normal guy who hasn't been changed by politics. He still has the same good core values we were raised with."

Of Obama, Owens said, together, he and her brother "will do wonderful things."

"Joe has said that Barack Obama has tapped into a great fundamental principle — in the face of struggle, a better life is possible," she said. "They both see the possibility and the need for monumental change. They've both gone through that personally, and they will do it for the country."

Owens — stylishly dressed Thursday in a black skirt, white blouse and pink cardigan sweater, with pearls adorning her ears, wrist and neck — is an attractive, petite blond with an engaging personality. Underneath, she has a quick wit and is not afraid to speak her mind.

When asked her thoughts on the suggestion by Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain to postpone today's scheduled debate between him and Obama because of the nation's financial crisis, Owens quickly replied, "I told Joe — and I know this can be said in a much more eloquent way — you gotta be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. As president, you've got to be able to do more than one thing at a time … multitask. You can't put one thing on hold until you take care of the first thing, you know?"

As for the "smear" campaigns that portray Obama as a Muslim, racist and anti-American — "Give me a break," she snapped.

At times Thursday morning, the coffee-table conversation touched on issues such as health care reform, education and the economy. Local officials, including Gray, also expressed their concern about middle America.

"I think if there's anything you can take back (to the candidates), it's bring government back home," Gray said. "We're continually seeing block grants cut. … The federal government just isn't there to help. They can give billions to Wall Street but nothing to Main Street. They've forgotten about the average person."

Which is exactly why the country needs someone like Biden, Owens said.

"My brother doesn't forget his roots; he doesn't forget where he came from," Owens said of their modest upbringing in Scranton and Castle County, Delaware.

"He's a great brother, a loving husband, a dedicated father and a loyal friend."

E-mail: jtodd@lnpnews.com