Profile of Madelyn Payne Dunham, Barack Obama's Grandmother

Madelyn Payne Dunham
Grandmother of presidential candidate Barack Obama
Former Vice President, Bank of Hawaii

Born October 26, 1922 in Peru, Kansas
Graduated high school in June 1940
Attended University of Washington
Attended University of California at Berkeley
Died on November 3, 2008 in Honolulu, Hawaii

Born in Peru, Kansas, Madelyn was the eldest of three children. Her parents were Rolla Charles Payne, a Midwest oil clerk, and Leona McCurry Payne. Both were stern Methodists who did not approve of drinking, playing cards, or dancing. When she was 3 years old, the family moved to Augusta, Kansas, an oil boom town where young Madelyn was raised.

Despite her strict upbringing, Madelyn would go with classmates to nearby Wichita, Kansas, to hear the popular music of the time at the Blue Moon Dance Hall. There she saw big bands led by Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, and Glen Miller.

While still in high school she met Stanley Armour Dunham, a loud, friendly, and gregarious salesman described as someone who could "charm the legs off of a couch." A Baptist from the nearby town of El Dorado, Stanley was four years older than Madelyn; she knew her parents would not approve of the relationship.

Nonetheless, Madelyn and Stanley were secretly wed on May 4, 1940, several weeks before Madelyn's high school graduation. The new bride waited until she received her diploma in June before telling her parents about the marriage.

When war broke out he enlisted in the Army. During World War II she was employed by Boeing as an aircraft inspector in the company's B-29 plant in Wichita, a job she later described as hard work.

Dunham gave birth to a daughter, Stanley Ann Dunham, on November 27, 1942, at Fort Leavenworth. Stanley, who had wanted a boy, nonetheless named the baby girl after himself. She would be the couple's only child.

When the war ended, Dunham went to work in the restaurant business while her husband managed a furniture store in his hometown of El Dorado. In 1955, Stanley took a job at a large furniture store in Seattle and the family moved to Mercer Island, Washington. In 1960, after Stanley Ann graduated from high school, the family moved once again - this time to Honolulu, where they finally settled down for good.

Now known simply as Ann, Dunham's daughter enrolled in the University of Hawaii where she fell in love with the school's first African student, a graduate student from Kenya named Barack Obama. Despite the objections of both families Ann and Barack were married; six months later, she gave birth to a son whom they named Barack, on August 4, 1961. Although Dunham and her husband were initially upset by the interracial marriage, they later accepted it.

As the marriage between Ann and Barack began to fail, Dunham took on a greater role in helping to care for young Barack. Barack Sr. left the family in 1963 to attend Harvard, and the couple eventually divorced in 1964. Ann remarried in 1966 and relocated to Indonesia with her son and her second husband. Young Barack returned alone to Hawaii at age 10 and was raised by his grandparents. After her second divorce, Ann moved back to Honolulu in 1974 with Barack's half-sister. When she left once again in 1977, he decided to stay with his grandparents in order to finish high school.

Sandwiched between her responsibilities as wife, mother, and breadwinner, Dunham attended college, first at the University of Washington, and later at the University of California at Berkeley. However, she never earned a college degree - a fact she regretted despite significant professional achievements later in life.

After arriving on Oahu, Dunham joined the Bank of Hawaii in 1960, starting in the escrow department. By 1962, she was promoted to manager. She blazed a trail for other women in banking throughout the 1960s and in December 1970 she achieved a significant first, becoming one of the bank's first two female vice presidents.

Management trainees often felt intimidated by her tough, no-nonsense 'drill seargeant' reputation. But those who got to know her saw a warm nurturing side and a soft-heartedness.

US Congresswoman Mazie Hirono, who worked for Dunham as a temporary employee right after college, said, "She reinforced in me this idea that you can do a lot of things as a woman if you are focused."

Dunham retired as the head of the bank's escrow department in 1986.

In addition to overcoming sexism in a male-dominated workplace, Dunham struggled against a type of racism unheard of on the mainland - she was discriminated against as a member of Hawaii's white minority community.

After her retirement, Dunham became involved in community service, working for nonprofit groups, the public library, and the Circuit Court, where she served as court mediator.

Her husband Stanley passed away on February 8, 1992. When Ann was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1995, she returned to Honolulu where Dunham cared for her daughter in the final months of her life. Ann died on November 7, 1995 at age 52.

Madelyn Dunham lived long enough to see Barack Obama run for public office at the state and national level. Diagnosed with cancer, she was in poor health for much of Obama's presidential campaign. She passed away on the eve of Election Day 2008, missing the historic election of her grandson by just a handful of hours.

_Sources:

Cannon, Scott. "Obama seeks foothold in America's heartland." Kansas City Star at McClatchydc.com, 29 January 2008.
Jones, Tim. "Obama's mom: Not just a girl from Kansas." Chicago Tribune, 27 March 2007.
Nakaso, Dan. "Family precedent: Obama's grandmother blazed trails." USAToday.com, 8 April 2008.
Nakaso, Dan. "Obama's tutu a female pioneer in Hawaii banking." The Honolulu Advertiser, 20 October 2008.
Powell, Kimberly. "Ancestry of Barack Obama - Fourth Generation." About.com, retrieved 22 October 2008.
"Profile: Madelyn Dunham" BBC News, 21 October 2008.
Scott, Janny. "A Free-Spirited Wanderer Who Set Obama’s Path." NewYorkTimes.com, 14 March 2008.
"Source: Cancer Returns For Obama's Grandmother" KITV.com, 21 October 2008.

Updated October 22, 2008