Barack Obama's Grandmother Dies Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has announced the death of his grandmother Madelyn Dunham. The 86-year-old Dunham had been battling cancer.

Barack Obama's Grandmother Dies

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/96539613/96536415" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

One final story about Barack Obama. The candidate's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has died of cancer. Dunham, or "Toot" as Obama called her, helped raised him when he was growing up in Hawaii. Obama visited her there a little more than a week ago. He learned of her death this morning while he was campaigning in Florida. In a statement, Obama called his grandmother the cornerstone of his family. Madelyn Dunham was 86 years old.

Copyright © 2008 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.