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'Toot' Was 'Quiet Hero' To Grandson Obama

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The New York Times

Published: November 4, 2008

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Madelyn Dunham, who watched from afar as her only grandson rapidly ascended the ranks of American politics to the brink of the presidency, did not live to see whether he was elected.

Dunham, 86, Sen. Barack Obama's grandmother, died late Sunday evening in Hawaii after battling cancer, which Obama announced upon arriving here on Monday for a campaign stop.

"She has gone home," Obama said, his voice tinged with emotion as he briefly spoke of her death at a campaign rally here. "She died peacefully in her sleep with my sister at her side, so there's great joy instead of tears."

Obama learned of his grandmother's death at 8 a.m. Monday, aides said, but carried through with a morning rally in Florida without making an announcement. A written statement was issued in Obama's name before he spoke at a rally in Charlotte.

Dunham was the final remaining immediate family member who helped raise Obama during his teenage years in Hawaii. He called her Toot, his shorthand for "tutu," a Hawaiian term for grandparent.

Obama broke from the presidential campaign trail in late October to travel to Honolulu to bid his grandmother farewell. He spent part of two days with her, as she lay gravely ill in the small apartment where he lived from ages 10 to 18.

Although Dunham was too sick to travel to see her grandson on the campaign trail, Obama and other family members said that she closely followed his bid for the presidency through cable television. Yet she became a figure in his campaign, seen through images in television commercials intended to give him a biographical anchor.

His grandmother's illness had been weighing on him in recent weeks, friends said, which is why he insisted on interrupting his schedule to visit her late last month. Although she was gravely ill, aides said, Obama carried on a limited conversation with her.

"She was one of those quiet heroes that we have all across America," Obama said. "They're not famous. Their names are not in the newspapers, but each and every day they work hard. They aren't seeking the limelight. All they try to do is just do the right thing. In this crowd there are a lot of quiet heroes like that."

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