[Shark79]

This is posted on YAHOO.



HONOLULU – Barack Obama's grandmother, whose personality and bearing shaped much of the life of the Democratic presidential contender, has died, Obama announced Monday, one day before the election. Madelyn Payne Dunham was 86. Obama announced the news from the campaign trail in Charlotte, N.C. The joint statement with his sister Maya Soetoro-Ng said Dunham died peacefully late Sunday night after a battle with cancer.

They said: "She was the cornerstone of our family, and a woman of extraordinary accomplishment, strength, and humility. She was the person who encouraged and allowed us to take chances."

Obama learned of her death Monday morning while he was campaigning in Jacksonville, Fla. He planned to go ahead with campaign appearances. The family said a private ceremony would be held later.

Republican John McCain issued condolences to his opponent. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to them as they remember and celebrate the life of someone who had such a profound impact in their lives," the statement by John and Cindy McCain said.

Last month, Obama took a break from campaigning and flew to Hawaii to be with Dunham as her health declined.

Obama said the decision to go to Hawaii was easy to make, telling CBS that he "got there too late" when his mother died of ovarian cancer in 1995 at 53, and wanted to make sure "that I don't make the same mistake twice."

The Kansas-born Dunham and her husband, Stanley, raised their grandson for several years so he could attend school in Honolulu while their daughter and her second husband lived overseas. Her influence on Obama's manner and the way he viewed the world was substantial, the candidate himself told millions watching him accept his party's nomination in Denver in August.

"She's the one who taught me about hard work," he said. "She's the one who put off buying a new car or a new dress for herself so that I could have a better life. She poured everything she had into me."

Obama's nickname for his grandmother was "Toot," a version of the Hawaiian word for grandmother, tutu. Many of his speeches describe her working on a bomber assembly line during World War II.

Madelyn and Stanley Dunham married in 1940, a few weeks before she graduated from high school. Their daughter, Stanley Ann, was born in 1942. After several moves to and from California, Texas, Washington and Kansas, Stanley Dunham's job landed the family in Hawaii.

It was there that Stanley Ann later met and fell in love with Obama's father, a Kenyan named Barack Hussein Obama Sr. They had met in Russian class at the University of Hawaii. Their son was born in August 1961, but the marriage didn't last long. She later married an Indonesian, Lolo Soetoro, another university student she met in Hawaii.

Obama moved to Indonesia with his mother and stepfather at age 6. But in 1971, her mother sent him back to Hawaii to live with her parents. He stayed with the Dunhams until he graduated from high school in 1979.

In his autobiography, Obama wrote fondly of playing basketball on a court below his grandparents' 10th-floor Honolulu apartment, and looking up to see his grandmother watching.

It was the same apartment Obama visited on annual holiday trips to Hawaii, a weeklong vacation from his campaign in August, and his pre-election visit in October. Family members said his grandmother could not travel because of her health.

Madelyn Dunham, who took university classes but to her chagrin never earned a degree, nonetheless rose from a secretarial job at the Bank of Hawaii to become one of the state's first female bank vice presidents.

"Every morning, she woke up at 5 a.m. and changed from the frowsy muumuus she wore around the apartment into a tailored suit and high-heeled pumps," Obama wrote.

After her health took a turn for the worse, her brother said on Oct. 21 that she had already lived long enough to see her "Barry" achieve what she'd wanted for him.

"I think she thinks she was important in raising a fine young man," Charles Payne, 83, said in a brief telephone interview from his Chicago home. "I doubt if it would occur to her that he would go this far this fast. But she's enjoyed watching it."

Stanley Dunham died in 1992, while Obama's mother died in 1995. His father is also deceased.

When Obama was young, he and his grandmother toured the United States by Greyhound bus, stopping at the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone Park, Disneyland and Chicago, where Obama would years later settle.

It was an incident during his teenage years that became one of Obama's most vivid memories of Toot. She had been aggressively panhandled by a man and she wanted her husband to take her to work. When Obama asked why, his grandfather said Madelyn Dunham was bothered because the panhandler was black.

The words hit the biracial Obama "like a fist in my stomach," he wrote later. He was sure his grandparents loved him deeply. "And yet," he added, "I knew that men who might easily have been my brothers could still inspire their rawest fears."

Obama referred to the incident again when he addressed race in a speech in March during a controversy over his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. "I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother," he said.

Dunham was "a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world but who once confessed her fear of black men who passed her on the street."

Still, much of who Obama is comes from his grandmother, said his half sister.

"From our grandmother, he gets his pragmatism, his levelheadedness, his ability to stay centered in the eye of the story," she told The Associated Press. "His sensible, no-nonsense (side) is inherited from her."

Madelyn Lee Payne was born to Rolla and Leona Payne in October, 1922, in Peru, Kan., but lived much of her childhood in nearby Augusta.

She was the oldest of four children, and she loved to read everything from James Hilton's "Lost Horizon" to Agatha Christie's "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd."

Dunham and her husband were "vicious" bridge players, according to her brother Jack. After retirement, the two of them would take island cruises and do little but play bridge and a more difficult version called duplicate bridge.

___

Associated Press Writer Nedra Pickler in Charlotte, N.C. contributed to this report.


Heres the link:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081103/...ma_grandmother

[picantel]

Hopefully some people show some class here. I am not holding my breath however.

[compaqDikk]

Originally Posted by picantel

Hopefully some people show some class here. I am not holding my breath however.

who did she vote for?
was she in the states legally?

[Shark79]

All I can say is:

RIP Madelyn Payne Dunham

[durito]

Originally Posted by compaqDikk

who did she vote for?
was she in the states legally?

She was born in the US dipshit.

[Shark79]

Originally Posted by compaqDikk

who did she vote for?
was she in the states legally?

1. Dunno
2. She is a US Citizen

[compaqDikk]

Originally Posted by durito

She was born in the US dipshit.

durito meet me in chat. we have some things to go over

[element1286]

Very sad for Mr. Obama.

[HedgeHog]

Just great, now Larry the Liar and MS the BS will spin this as a sympathy ploy for Obama.

[HeeeHAWWWW]

Originally Posted by picantel

Hopefully some people show some class here. I am not holding my breath however.

Good luck with that one.

[tacomax]

Originally Posted by picantel

Hopefully some people show some class here. I am not holding my breath however.

I predict the racist pizza boy's next thread wil be along the lines of:

Obama's grandmother would rather die than see him in office

[BeatTheJerk]

what terrible timing ...................... this is a very sad day for the obama family.

[treece]

This is bad karma for Obama.

[Jacey]

One day short from seeing history

[HedgeHog]

Originally Posted by tacomax

I predict the racist pizza boy's next thread wil be along the lines of:

Obama's grandmother would rather die than see him in office

Or "Obama keeps dead Grandma on ice for weeks prior to election, getting sympathy votes from the undecided".

[compaqDikk]

JJ you racist mutha fukker. tell us how you really feel about her and the hiring of singeltary and blacks in general you cokksucker

[SSLP]

Originally Posted by HedgeHog

Or "Obama keeps dead Grandma on ice for weeks prior to election, getting sympathy votes from the undecided".

[Dbldown11]

why does anyone think it's funny to joke about the death of anyone....you're all sick human beings.

Frankly I think it is incredibly sad that she would die so close to seeing history made with her grandson overcoming a history of racism and oppression to become the first African American president in our countries history. I'm sure she was incredibly proud none the less, and probably only held on this long to see Barack in this campaign.

[compaqDikk]

the doctors should be sued. they could have prevented this

[Shark79]

Originally Posted by Dbldown11

why does anyone think it's funny to joke about the death of anyone....you're all sick human beings.

Frankly I think it is incredibly sad that she would die so close to seeing history made with her grandson overcoming a history of racism and oppression to become the first African American president in our countries history. I'm sure she was incredibly proud none the less, and probably only held on this long to see Barack in this campaign.

Not all of us are sick human beings

[bigboydan]

Originally Posted by HedgeHog

"Obama keeps dead Grandma on ice for weeks prior to election, getting sympathy votes from the undecided".

Sad but probably true HH.

[pavyracer]

The responses of some pigs here are dispeakable.

[Dbldown11]

what are you people talking about sympathy votes. First of all this news just came out, he isnt going to be looking for sympathy votes. Secondly if you ****ing idiots knew anything about anything you would know that all political analysts including those pulling for John McCain have basically stated that it will be almost impossible for McCain to win. So You're all ****ed up in the head to even bring something like that up. This is a horrible thing that has happend to an actual human being, and an actual family....

Just because you read about it or ****ing see it on TV does not diminish the fact that these are real people with real feelings and real emotions. Show some ****ing class bigboydan and hedgehog

[BadNina]

It is a sad day for anyone when a much loved family member passes away. I am glad he was able to spend time with her before she died.

[Dbldown11]

If Palin's mentally disabled child died the night before the election would it be okay to make that "sympathy vote statement" in that scenario? NO!!!! you would all freak out about that, so don't be so hypocritical.

[HedgeHog]

Originally Posted by Dbldown11

what are you people talking about sympathy votes. First of all this news just came out, he isnt going to be looking for sympathy votes. Secondly if you ****ing idiots knew anything about anything you would know that all political analysts including those pulling for John McCain have basically stated that it will be almost impossible for McCain to win. So You're all ****ed up in the head to even bring something like that up. This is a horrible thing that has happend to an actual human being, and an actual family....

Just because you read about it or ****ing see it on TV does not diminish the fact that these are real people with real feelings and real emotions. Show some ****ing class bigboydan and hedgehog

Chill, this is not my opinion--rather it's the way I see McCain extremists like Larry Sinclair and BBD spinning her untimely death. BTW does her early vote still count since she didn't make it to election day. I'll bet BBD wants her vote negated.

[BadNina]

Originally Posted by Dbldown11

If Palin's mentally disabled child died the night before the election would it be okay to make that "sympathy vote statement" in that scenario? NO!!!! you would all freak out about that, so don't be so hypocritical.

Well who peed in your cheerios?

[HedgeHog]

Probably Joe the Plumber.

[danrman]

who the **** cares and i totally question the timing of this release.. i wouldnt put anything past obama.. he's promised everything to just about everybody... its true,, people really are stupid

[HedgeHog]

Originally Posted by danrman

who the **** cares and i totally question the timing of this release.. i wouldnt put anything past obama.. he's promised everything to just about everybody... its true,, people really are stupid

If McCain's Mom kicks off before the polls open tomorrow, then I'll suspect a conspiracy, too.

[Dbldown11]

republicans are the ones that pray on the stupidity of the public not democrats...

[treece]

It seems like obama doesn't even care about her death. I guess the election is more important.

[MJFtheGenius]

hmmmm....kind of fishy if you ask me

Obama wants american public to feel remorse for him

I ain't buyin it

voting Mccain