"Obama's grandmother fights to see him elected.""Madelyn Payne Dunham gave young [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama a place to call home while his mother traveled the world. When he needed money for school, she went without new clothes to help pay his tuition." ... "And when the Illinois Senator decided to seek the Democratic presidential nomination, Dunham provided the "Kansas heartland" pedigree he needed to appeal to conservative white voters — and a personal anecdote about racial prejudice that helped the man with the foreign name and Ivy League resume connect with the African-American experience." ... "The 85-year-old former bank executive is said to be "gravely ill" after falling and breaking her hip, and some reports suggest she might not live to see the results of the Nov. 4 election. Whatever happens, she's already lived long enough to see her "Barry" achieve what she'd wanted for him, her brother says." ... "Although he made his mark thousands of miles from the Honolulu [Hawaii's capital] apartment where she helped raise him, Obama and others credit Dunham — whose birthday is Sunday — with instilling in him an appreciation for education and hard work, and with setting an example of thrift, practicality and tolerance." ... ""I think there's nobody more important than her, except his mother, in shaping his character," said David Mendell, who interviewed Dunham in 2004 for the Chicago Tribune and later wrote the book, "Obama: From Promise to Power."" ... "While her husband [Obama's grandfather, Stanley Dunham] was away in the Army during World War II, she was home raising their daughter, Stanley Ann, and supervising a B-29 bomber assembly line at the Boeing plant in Wichita [Kansas]
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