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IN BRIEF: Obama pays tribute to grandmother.(News)

Article from: Daily Post (Liverpool, England) Article date: November 04, 2008

BARACK OBAMA last night announced the death of his grandmother.

The Democratic presidential candidate gave the news in a joint statement with his sister Maya Soetoro-Ng. He said his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, had died peacefully after a battle with cancer.

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

Late last month, Mr Obama took a break from campaigning and flew to Hawaii to be with the 86-year-old, who helped raise him.

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Obama Doesn't Shy From Hard Truths: Sister

Posted Apr 7, 08 9:58 AM CDT in Politics 

Obama Doesn't Shy From Hard Truths: Sister
Source: AP Photo/Alex Brandon

(Newser) – Barack Obama's diverse family has remained silent since the flare-up over his former pastor's sermons. But in her first public comments since Obama's speech on race in America, half-sister Maya Soetoro-Ng told the Telegraph their "typical white" grandmother, whose opinions on blacks sometimes made the candidate "cringe," was "entirely supportive" of Obama and his descriptions.

Obama faced criticism in the conservative press for his depiction of Madelyne Dunham in the Philadelphia speech, but Soetoro-Ng dismissed such comments. "I know that I have only ever known him to tell the truth," she said, "even when it wasn't convenient or when it would generate discomfort with family, friends, or co-workers."

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(Newser) - On the eve of Election Day, Barack Obama's maternal grandmother died today in Honolulu after a long struggle with cancer. Madelyn Dunham, who helped raise Obama, had been in hospice care, the Chicago Tribune reports. The senator and his sister Maya Soetoro-Ng released a statement calling their 86-year-old grandmother "the cornerstone of our family, and a woman of extraordinary accomplishment, strength, and humility." More »

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