Obama Attends Memorial Service For Grandmother

HONOLULU — President-elect Barack Obama gathered with family and friends on Tuesday for a private memorial service for the beloved grandmother who helped raise him.

Madelyn Payne Dunham, known to her friends as "Toot", died Nov. 2, two days before Obama won election to become the nation's first African-American president. She was 86.

Obama did not speak to reporters at the small home that had been converted into the First Unitarian Church in the neighborhood of Nuuanu. Aides said Obama's half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, and her husband, Konrad Ng, also were present.

Following the ceremony, Obama drove to cliffs east of Hononulu. He and about 20 members of his family climbed over a stone wall and down onto rocky ledges to scatter Dunham's ashes at Lanai Lookout.

Obama earlier this year left flowers at the same cliffs, in memory of his mother.

Comments

[tlgeiger62]

Mahalo and Aloha Mrs. Dunham. You have much to be proud of and may the Obama family have a happy life and many years of joy.

[kellygrrrl]

Aloha Toot!

[JScott]

And god said 'Madelyn, ya did good'.

[sandpiper1]

She sure did. RIP Toot. I know you're in heaven looking down on your beloved Barry and will keep him and his family safe. God bless.

[marymansour]

*smile*

[JScott]

She is now a(and the country's) guardian angel, smiling from above.

[munki]

So true...
She was a banker... please take us out of this mess...

[hotstuff]

You can't beat have a guardian like that special lady, can ya?

[Kalamama]

Please stop all of you that are posting negative and nasty thoughts. What I see is a man who lost someone very dear to him and he's not in office yet, so why can't the press and the rest of us give him a single day of peace to mourn his beloved Toot?!?!
Rest in peace toot and my prayers to the entire family

[springsm]

I agree. May God hold Toot and the family close.

[Invox]

Fortunately, he and his family are not reading this cr.ap.

[lovable]

righttone11 . i am happy u see him as half wite and u will not see color when he is elected . let me give u lifes truth now. people like radical conservatives and most white men say that if u have 1 drop of black blood in u but u are white and black parents then u are black. thats how they the white man determins what u are ok. ask any u know. i always say i am mixed .

[Rightone11]

lovable, I am a Conservative female, I have been all my adult lefe. And I can guarantee you that I have NEVER heard other conservatives or white men or women say what you just said. And that is a fact~

Merry Christmas~

[amistad]

Still doesn't negate lovable's post. And that is a fact~

Merry Christmas~

[Shikamaru]

You are either delusional and lying to yourself and this board or you never leave your house or the city you grew up in. What the above poster is speaking of is the "One drop" rule, unfortunately he did not make this up or is it a brand new phenomenon, and that is a fact.

Merry Christmas

[Invox]

Sorry, Rightone11­....I can count 4 conservatives in my life this past election who were white supremecists. They thought anyone who was not a WASP should be sent back to where they came from. I NEVER heard that from a progressive. Merry Christmas to you too!

[lioness39]

Apparently, Rightone11, you were not raised in the South. What lovable posted was and is, to a large degree, true of Southerners.

[MaximMaximus]

What is it that you're conserving as a conservative. Gov. Palin is also conservative -knocked up at age 43 and so is his daughter. Really -what are you conservatives conserving?

[Rightone11]

Most conservatives had many problems with Obama. His color was NOT one of them. This is all about color to progressives. Unfortunatley, so is everything else~

[amistad]

Says the Conservatve Christian who only sees Obama as white~

[protagonia]

You are poorly equipped to converse here, ringtone11.

[cjk002]

So all those people we saw calling him a black socialist, an african american socialist, a black marxist, a muslim, an arab, a radical black marxist, and a hundred other race referenced terms were not considering his race?

Yeah.

Right.

[lioness39]

Aloha, Mrs. Dunham, and mahalo for raising our wonderful new President.

[Rightone11]

They did a great job. Many grandparents do NOT step in and raise grandkids, for various reasons. Good thing his did. And yes, I really think they did a great job~

[Yurdelite]

THAT Rightone11 IS NOT TRUE. In the black community there are MANY, MANY grandparents who are raising their grandchildren. So, you know not of what you speak so speak for yourself. Maybe YOU wouldn't do it but many of us will. And that applies to taking care of your parents in their old age. Most black folks will take care of their parents because most cannot afford the astronomical cost of it but also because that is how we were raised, period. Take of your own...

[sandpiper1]

Wrong again...he­re in Ontario, Canada and probably other provinces, grandparents are raising their childrens' offsprings for a variety of reasons and most of these grandparents are white. I watched a documentary on it so I know it's a fact. This happens all over the world and is not just relegated to the black community.

[amistad]

Lioness,
Check out rightone's other posts to see exactly what this kind Christian really thinks....

[lovable]

right tone i have seen radicalconservative post here before . HE IS A OBAMA HATER . that is fine for true articles that affect our nation and his radical views but this is not the story for his veiled hatred ok . !!!!!

[ImWithThatOne]

Godspeed Toot!

[TONYR]

Wow “Rightone11”. Now this is progress I can believe in. In the United States I have never heard anyone associate a biracial person with being more "White" especially when the biracial person is half Black. Or for that matter even “white” at all. Barack is not the only Black people to have grown up around or have been raised by “White” people. Should I also assume that those people are White as well? This is great. Now if we can only get you to accept the other half of him (the black side) we would really have made progress. We finally get a (at least half) Black person to the highest office in the land and you are accepting him as all white. Obviously I understand that any Black person who is famous, wealthy or successful has always and would be accepted by someone like you. What a world. Anyway God Bless You and I accept you no matter what color you are. Let’s share him.

[Rightone11]

I accept Barack Obama as our POTUS-elect, and also once he becomes president. Color is not the object, and it is NOT a problem with me or any white person I know.. And yes, I see most half whhite/half black people as white. I guess it is because I am white/just as most black people see half white/black people as black.~Thi­s is MY opinion~
Merry Christmas to you and your family~

[amistad]

Says the Christian that only sees Obama as WHITE!!!!!
Merry Christmas and Onward Christian solidier..­..

[OverIt]

Black people don't see half-white­/half-blac­k people as black solely because we want to identify with them. That view is an exact reflection of our racial history in this country. Children of slaves and whites were considered black and were themselves slaves. Not saying that classification is not outdated but it is not a figment of the imagination of blacks.

Obama has always acknowledged that he is half-white AND half-black but he also identifies as an "African-American" a euphemism that goes beyond genetic makeup but speaks more to the sociologic­al/anthrop­ological REALITY that Barack Obama could not "pass" for white by any stretch of the imagination.
.

[jemiltd]

Why do you need to define anyone by color instead of character? The notion that perception is reality is a myth. For the record, you have no idea of the racial makeup of anyone you see on the street. The majority of African Americans have some Anglo heritage, some more some less. The color of skin has never defined the degree. The compelling need for leveling is the human character flaw that most need to overcome. Your skin color is not who you are; doesn't make you smarter, dumber, better, less than. If that was the case, you would rethink pursuing that perfect tan, right? Staying ignorant in spite of the knowledge provided, truth shared is a conscious choice that you own as an individual and tells me everything I need to know about who you really are.

[StillIRise]

You see MOST half-white/half black-people as white?

How do you make the distinction between those half-white­/half-blac­k people you see as white, and those you see as black?

Did you see Reverend Wright as white? It's obvious that he has more white lineage in his blood than Obama does, but I doubt if you or anyone else saw him as anything but a black man.

Virtually all African Americans are "mixed," some more or less than others, as you can see by the beautiful myriad hues of our complexions, but in America, we are black, and unlike you, we don't have a choice to pick and choose how we see ourselves and each other. We embrace the reality of who we are, just as PE Obama does, and how YOU see him or any other half-white­/half-blac­k person, doesn't change that reality. Nor does it change the reality that PE Obama is the first black or African American President in our nation's history, a reality that many do not want to accept, which is why they also refuse to accept the reality that he is who he himself says he is ... a black man!

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas, and as my friends and I say, a Happy OBAMA New Year! I also once again extend my condolences to PE Obama and his family. Toot was an extraordinary woman, and she too will be remembered in history, as will her extraordinary grandson.

[marykins123]

Thank you Toot for all that you did to form our President elect's inclusiveness. He will be known as a Great Leader because of your influence - rest in peace, Toot, and take care of Barrie from above.

[scnilajo6]

I feel so sorry for him. I still have a lot of family alive. I will keep him and his family in my prayers

[anghiari]

Why feel sorry for him? There are lots of people with families they despise or can't get along with. Obama had a loving mother and grandparents who gave him all they had. That is a great legacy. He now has his wife's family and great friends. He knows in his heart that his family gave him the best foundation to become the person he has become....­he doesn' need our sympathy so much as he needs our support for his next eight years!

[StillIRise]

AMEN!

[propitiousmoment]

Agreed, but as I watched him on election night one of the things that touched me most was that he had not one person who was blood-related to him on that platform in Chicago. That means something, and it hurts. I have a large immediate family, but over the years they all moved away and are in general too far for visits so that now I am the only person from my family that lives anywhere in this part of the country. It is hard sometimes to feel that reality. With his grandmother's death so fresh, even with the comfort of his wife's and the Biden's families, I'm sure it was a bittersweet moment for him.

[SiberianRat]

This is terrible--why can't the press give the man and his family a moment's privacy??!!

[viewfromuphere]

on another note...god­speed Madelyn Dunham....­and rest in peace....

[Giada]

How fortunate he was to have, "tutu," as his loving grandmother. And how fortunate she was to have a caring grandson.

[Rightone11]

I agree. She and Obama's grandpa did a great job raising him~

[amistad]

Giada,
Please see rightone's other posts.
Don't be fooled; he is just another tr0ll on the boards today....