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Obama 'Auntie' Lives in Boston Public Housing
Zeituni Onyango trying to stay out of campaign spotlight
By Ambreen Ali
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Posted Oct 30, 08 10:48 AM CDT
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(Newser)
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Across town from Barack Obama’s Ivy League alma mater, his “Auntie Zeituni” has been living in a public-housing apartment decorated with photos of the Democrat. Zeituni Onyango—a tall, feisty woman Obama writes about meeting in Kenya—works for a stipend as a resident health advocate but made $260 in campaign donations, and has actively shunned those seeking her story. “Come talk to me after the fifth,” she told Globe reporters at the South Boston complex.
Onyango, Obama’s paternal aunt, confirmed to the Times of London she was the figure in the candidate’s book, Dreams From My Father. “Uncle Omar,” who Obama says went missing after moving to the US in the 1960s, has also been struggling in Boston: He was beaten by armed robbers in a corner shop where he worked and then evicted from his apartment in 2000.