Obama's grandmother dies

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 Mrs. Dunham died peacefully late Sunday night after a battle with cancer.

Obama learned of her death in Hawaii on 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.

Last month, Obama took a break from campaigning and flew to Hawaii to be with Dunham as her health declined.

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.

The Kansas-born Dunham and her husband, Stanley, raised their grandson for several years until he graduated from high school in 1979 in Honolulu while their daughter and her second husband were living in Indonesia.

Her influence on Obama, whose nickname for his grandmother was "Toot," a version of the Hawaiian word for grandmother, tutu, was substantial, the candidate himself told millions watching him accept his party's nomination in Denver in August.

"She's gone home," Obama told a crowd of 25,000 supporters who grew silent as tears ran down both cheeks at a rally at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte.

"And she died peacefully in her sleep with my sister at her side. And so there is great joy as well as tears. I'm not going to talk about it too long because it is hard for me to talk about."