| Nov 3, 2008 @ 6:54 PM |
Granny Toot passed...
|
|
DeputyWitch
Posts: 697
|
So guess we'll never know what we need to know...
Obama's grandmother dies a day before election
HERBERT A. SAMPLE, Associated Press Writer Herbert A. Sample, Associated Press Writer – 49 mins ago
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."
Outside the apartment building where Dunham died, reporters and TV cameras lined the sidewalk as two police officers were posted near the elevator. Signs hanging in the apartment lobby warned the public to keep out.
Longtime family friend Georgia McCauley visited the 10th-floor apartment where Obama had lived with his grandparent.
"So many of us were hoping and praying that his grandmother would have the opportunity to witness her grandson become our next president," said state Rep. Marcus Oshiro, an Obama supporter. "What a bittersweet victory it will be for him. Wow."
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.
Link
|
|
  |
|
| Nov 3, 2008 @ 7:03 PM |
Granny Toot passed... |
|
vinnytmd
Posts: 6,004
|
My Uncle owned the entire bus system in Hawaii. He took a small amount of money in the 60's and parlayed it into Billions. There are plenty of buses in Oahu. 
|
| |
|
| Nov 3, 2008 @ 7:12 PM |
Granny Toot passed...
|
|
CHARLIgurl1
Posts: 700
|
I think no matter what your political sway is, its always sad for anyone to lose a family member, She is an innocent, if Obama is ever found to be more than what he says he is.. that wasn't her fault.
|
|
| |
|
| Nov 3, 2008 @ 7:22 PM |
Granny Toot passed... |
|
Nightowl001
Posts: 7,497
|
My deepest sympathies are extended to her family, friends and loved ones. 
|
| |
|
| Nov 3, 2008 @ 7:42 PM |
Granny Toot passed...
|
|
sassycat
Posts: 251
|
He praised her tonight at a rally in NC. He called her a quite Hero who put everything into a better life for her children and grandchildren. He couldn't hold back the tears. I don't care what any heartless idiot says, it was from his heart.
Rest in peace Ms. Dunham. You have earned it.
|
|
| |
|
| Nov 3, 2008 @ 9:40 PM |
Granny Toot passed... |
|
KatiefromStafford
Posts: 2,750
|
My sympathies and prayers for Senator Obama and his family. Rest in peace, Mrs. Dunham, I am sure you will be watching with pride.
|
| |
|
| Nov 3, 2008 @ 9:51 PM |
Granny Toot passed...
|
|
nah12
Posts: 3,973
|
Vinny IMO he owed her a lot more respect than he has given her in public ... when he compared her to Rev Wright that spoke volumes .... ANY woman that raises a child as she did him deserves the utmost respect and he did not show her that when speaking of her in the same sentence as Wright or by mentioning her death during a campaign rally where he is soliciting votes .....
he could have very easily been by her side if he thought she was important enough .... but he did not ...
|
|
| |
|
| Nov 3, 2008 @ 9:56 PM |
Granny Toot passed... |
|
vinnytmd
Posts: 6,004
|
I agree nah. He reminds me of Clinton in that way. Uses everyone
|
| |
|
| Nov 3, 2008 @ 9:58 PM |
Granny Toot passed...
|
|
Nightowl001
Posts: 7,497
|
i guess he really didn't mean it when he said he was not going to let this be like it was with his mother and not be there
You people are unbelievable. Why do you have to twist everything to claim people said things they didn't say? Washington: White House hopeful Barack Obama spoke about the heart-wrenching mistake he made in not rushing to his mother's side before she died, and how he won't make the same mistake again with his grandmother.
In an unprecedented move 12 days before election day, the Democrat left the campaign trail yesterday to be at the bedside of his ailing grandmother in Hawaii, who he described in his convention speech in August as one of his "heroes."
When Obama's Kansas-born mother, Ann Dunham, passed away, "I got there too late," he told CBS television.
"We knew that she wasn't doing well but, you know, the diagnosis was such where we thought we had a little more time and we didn't. And so I want to make sure that I don't -- I don't make the same mistake twice," Obama said And he didn't. Twelve days ago, he suspended his camping and flew to visit her when it became apparent the end was approaching. He got there in time to see her and make their goodbye's before she passed away. He never said anything about being at her bedside when she passed. It's pathetic that people can try to spin this into something they can criticize him for.
|
|
| |
|
| Nov 3, 2008 @ 10:00 PM |
Granny Toot passed... |
|
Gman762
Posts: 3,291
|
Was this the "typical white woman" that Obama alluded to?
|
| |
|
| Nov 3, 2008 @ 10:02 PM |
Granny Toot passed...
|
|
vinnytmd
Posts: 6,004
|
Yes it was gman. He loved her so that he went years without seeing her.
UNDER DE BOOOS
|
|
| |
|
| Nov 3, 2008 @ 10:04 PM |
Granny Toot passed... |
|
KatiefromStafford
Posts: 2,750
|
When he made the decision to go see her, you condemned him for 'lying so he could go to Hawaii about his birth cert.'
Now that the lady has passed, you still behave like distruptive children. Grow up and behave like adults. A woman has died. Show respect for her, even if you don't respect him. 
|
| |
|
| Nov 3, 2008 @ 10:10 PM |
Granny Toot passed...
|
|
vinnytmd
Posts: 6,004
|
katie - prior to that. YOu need to read his book.
He conveniently went to see her in June. Prior to that it had been YEARS.
Really katie - read up.
|
|
| |
|
| Nov 3, 2008 @ 10:13 PM |
Granny Toot passed... |
|
KatiefromStafford
Posts: 2,750
|
Really, vinny, a woman has died, and you go on about throwing her under the bus and joke about it.. does it matter about him, could you not respect the woman for being a caring individual who took her grandson in?
Edited to add:
Put the shoe on the other foot, if someone close to McCain passed (his mother for example) and the Dems behaved like this, how would you feel?
|
| |
|
| Nov 3, 2008 @ 10:14 PM |
Granny Toot passed...
|
|
nah12
Posts: 3,973
|
well NO if 12 days before clears his and your conscious then so be it because it sure as HelI would not have cleared mine not for a woman that raised me .....
and by the way he does have access to a plane at his disposal any moment of the day or night remember .... but that would have been expecting too much to have spend the last hour or two of her life with her wouldn't it ..... besides she only raised him .... how dare me to think she deserved that as well as a visit 12 days ago .....
[Edited on 11/3/2008 10:17 PM]
|
|
| |
|
| Nov 3, 2008 @ 10:14 PM |
Granny Toot passed... |
|
vinnytmd
Posts: 6,004
|
WOOOOOOO - katie - I respect her the max. It is Barry that is the scum. What are you reading? Not what I wrote.
CHILL out - pulease.
|
| |
|
| Nov 3, 2008 @ 10:18 PM |
Granny Toot passed...
|
|
sassycat
Posts: 251
|
He happens to be running for the highest office in our land and the election is tomorrow. Yes, I can see how that would make you happy if he just gave up, but guess what she wouldn't have wanted him too. My parents loved me and they wanted what was best for me even when it meant not being with my father when he passed away. No, I made it a day late because he died of cancer. Most people have a clue... But not people with an agenda like you. It's strange how judging others comes back on you....it's called karma.
|
|
| |
|
| Nov 3, 2008 @ 10:20 PM |
Granny Toot passed... |
|
KatiefromStafford
Posts: 2,750
|
Because the poor Mod is here pruning your less complimentary comments, mine look a bit silly, but good for Mr. Mod, and thank you sir!
|
| |
|
| Nov 3, 2008 @ 10:21 PM |
Granny Toot passed...
|
|
vinnytmd
Posts: 6,004
|
sassy, I sat by My GrandMothers side for 6 days until she passed away. I did the same for my neighbor who had no family.
He has a Jet. Pulease. This woman was his ONLY parental guidance.
After calling her a typical White woman you would think he would make amends by being there
[Edited on 11/3/2008 10:55 PM]
|
|
| |
|
| Nov 3, 2008 @ 10:22 PM |
Granny Toot passed... |
|
nah12
Posts: 3,973
|
well i sure as helI hope Karma kisses his @ss big time for not being by her side!!!She did deserve him to be there NO matter what .... He owed it to her out of respect if nothing else !!
|
| |
|
|
|
|