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

[Invox]

My gratitude to Madelyn Dunham for playing a significant positive role in the life of Barack Obama. Call it luck, call it fate or destiny, some might call it God's will....I don't know. But I think Americans are fortunate that Barack Obama has appeared for this challenging time in our history. Rest in peace, Mrs. Dunham and blessings to the Obama family.

[lovable]

RADICAL CONSERVATIVE . why dont u go to the fox web site where ur ilk post????? or michelle malkin or limbaugh or hannity. we are talking about a memorial here . can u once give condolences without the need of hate . there will be more u can criticize obama and the people who respect him for the next 8 years

[Rightone11]

I didn't see any hate coming out of radicalCon­servative. I think YOU don't like his/her name~

[amistad]

Says the h@ter....

[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.

[protagonia]

Rightone11

You have no idea how you actually appear to others, do you?

Nobody here wishes you anything but good will and a huge, healthy dose of enlightenment. You seem set in your ways though, and that is a pity. You think you already know the truth, and you do not. There is no way to show someone like that. Your tiny baby steps will have to suffice.

[MsAttitude]

Wow, next we'll get to see pics of him in the bathroom! This memorial should've been a private moment. Who invited the press?

[Rightone11]

I am sure his aides alerted them~

[amistad]

I am sure that you are a jealous H@TER!!!
Merry Christmas!

[OutsiderSA]

The pic is taken with a telephoto lens viz from some distance hence the lack of depth of field viz the blurred fore and backgrounds. I am sure they were not in his face at the time.

[darleneslee]

They need to be alerted that some of us are not interested in the most private personal moments of peoples lives.

[truegreen]

Leave the Obama alone, please.

[mscreant]

Amen......­(and I am an atheist!) LOL

[Rightone11]

I agree. He deserves some privacy. His aides need to quit telling the press his every move. You know this is what is happening. Either that or it is Michelle~

[xmw]

I notice that the media is always quick to refer to his ister as "his half sister". Though technically she is. They share the same Mother and was raised together as me and my isters although we have different dads. We have never used that term not allowed anyone else. But what is interesting is that they refer to her children here and in several other articles as "His neice". Just wondering.­..

[Charmed]

I thought I was just being sensitive about the "half sister" thing. I never refer to my sister as a half and we have different fathers. The media is once again out of touch.

[ckfan]

if you are born from the same mother's womb then you are no half-siblings.

[xmw]

Yes! Thank you!

[ABCD]

Im with you - They always call her his 1/2 sister. I bet you he see's her as his sister. Just that his sister. And, I bet you she see's him as her brother.

They (the media) want to think for us. Some of us are smarter then that.

Others well..... not so much.

[sandpiper1]

Could be because they don't look alike ie skin tone. I think they would say that about my brothers and me too. I look like my mother who was of german descent while my brothers look more like hispanics or latinos in that they are darker and look mixed while I look white.

[RadicalConservative]

Why is the papparazzi hanging around a private family moment like this? The man is not a celebrity.

[darleneslee]

Even celebrity's need private moments. We will mourn your leaving.

[propitiousmoment]

There is a contingent of press from all of the major outlets that are assigned to follow him around. It's called a "pool". That's why you get "pool reports" about his every move. They're not paparazzi, who are freelancers that follow stars around and intrude every way they can to get photos they can sell. These photos are long shots, the photogs are nowhere near Obama or his family.

[karela]

Peace be with you Obama family. We're very grateful for the job Toot did in helping to raise the very good man who leads us now.

[RadicalConservative]

He doesn't lead us now.

[Curlew]

Barack is showing leadership now that Bush has never mustered in 8 very long years.

[Archivist1000]

Yea, one President isn't President YET ... and the other one is AWOL on the job, going around spreading his delusions.

Please Jan 20, HURRY UP !

[MrKINOKO]

The negativity is unbecoming, and pointless, other than to create antagonism and push the negative commentor just a wee bit further from the mainstream. My Mom always said: "If you have nothing relevant or intelligent to say....jus­t don't say anything at all".

[Ldyandrea]

28 days and counting..­....and yet he still is showing more leadership than the man still residing in the White House.

[pixy242a]

In theory, maybe, but everyone is looking to him to get us out of the mess left by bush et al.

[markusmarkus]

Amen, sister, amen!

[Rightone11]

His Mother was NEVER in the picture, nor his father. His grandparents raised him. Obviously in the "white" world, seeing as they were white. Obama will never be the "black" president that most blacks want. He is more white than black~

BTW, his grandparents obviously did a great job. My hat off to both of them~

[propitiousmoment]

Credit where it's due. He lived with his grandparents from about age 10 on, to give him some stability because she was travelling and pursuing her doctorate. It's not demeaning to either the mother or grandmother to acknowledge the contribution of the the other. His mother WAS in the picture. He has openly and often acknowledged his appreciation for his mother's influence. For example, he says she would be proud not only of the fact that he won the election, but of "the way" he won the election, i.e., with integrity and grace.

[CUL8R]

I'm black and he's black enough for me, not that it matters. Then again, maybe I'm too progressive.

[voter42]

Please, tell us what is the "black" President that we want?

[amistad]

You are WRONG. Obama's mother was very much a part of Obama's life.
Keep clinging to the "white" "white" "white" issue.
Proves you know nothing about what being black in America means while also showing your b*ggotry issues.
BTW, I am sure Obama cares what you think about him and his life.

[Lotus19]

Aww...jeal­ous? Sorry bub....but it is*he* who decides who and what he identifies with and when I look at his most inner circle (as well as the church he chose for many years) it's very obvious that he has no problem traveling amongst various races and culture.

But thank you for wanting to claim such a fine man.

[MsLiz]

Mrs. Dunham, the hand which rocked the cradle will now influence the world.