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Barry's Hawaii Family |
| We are the world, we are the children.
We are the ones
who make a brighter day - Michael Jackson |
| This website is updated continuously. Please come back soon. (December 12, 2008) |
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President Barack Obama's total family is a United Nations potpourri.
While the Hawaii branch continues to evolve, it remains close.
Here is a snapshot of Barry's Honolulu Family as of December 2008.
We include background information on Barry's deceased mother, Toot and Stanley |
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Maya Soetoro-Ng and Sandy Keating at a Kapiolani Park picnic in February 2008.
Sandy coowns this website with her husband. |
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Maya Soetoro-Ng, is the half sister of President Barack Obama. She lives in Honolulu with her husband, Konrad Ng and their young daughter, Suhaila.
They are the only relatives of President Obama living in Honolulu.
Maya, who is nine years younger than the President, grew up in Makiki/Manoa as young Barry's Kid sister. She is the closest of his seven living siblings. As the kid sister, she followed his trail. First from Indonesia to Hawaii. Then to Punahou School. And later, she followed him to New York City where she attended Barnard College.
Currently, Maya teaches at La Pietra, a private school for girls that is located at the far end of Kapiolani Park where it gives way to the lower slopes of Diamond Head. Her husband is Konrad Ng, a Canadian of Malaysian Chinese ancestory. He is an instructor at the University of Hawaii. They were married on the North Shore of Oahu in late 2003.
Maya is nine years younger than Barry. She was born in Jakarta, Indonesia on August 15, 1970.
At the time of her birth, young Barry left Indonesia and returned to Honolulu to live with their grandparents, Stanley and Madelyn Dunham.
Maya moved back to Honolulu, with her and Barry's mother, Ann, two years later in 1972. |
Aloha means 'Hello'. Aloha means 'Goodbye'. Aloha also means 'I love you'.
All too often Aloha means Goodbye. |
Ann Dunham, the mother of Maya and President Barack Obama, died of ovarian cancer at the age of 52 in Honolulu on November 7th, 1995. Her cremated ashes were spread in the Pacific Ocean somewhere off the rocky cliffs of Halona Point on the Southeast end of Oahu.
At the time of her death President Obama was 34 and working in Chicago. Unfortunately, death came more quickly than the family anticipated. He did not make it back to Honolulu until after she passed away. This circumstance has remained heavy on his heart.
President Obama's first book Dreams from My Father was published just a few months before her death. When President Obama returns to Hawaii, he goes to the cliffs near Halona Point and pays his respects |
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Halona Blowhole |
Stanley Dunham, Barry's paternal grandfather, died on February 8, 1992 of prostate cancer at the age of 73. He had served in the US military during World War II, and his ashes are interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, better known as Punchbowl.
On August 21st, 1959, President Eisenhower delivered a proclamation making Hawaii the 50th State. Stanley, a restless dreamer viewed Honolulu as a place of opportunity. Ten months later, as soon as his daughter graduated from Mercer Island High School near Seattle, Stanley brought his family to Honolulu. He took a sales position in a furniture store. Honolulu, or perhaps middle age, had a calming effect on Stanley's wonderlust. He never left the islands, remaining here until his death 32 years later.
Stanley loved young Barry, and took him everywhere from the neighborhood mom and pop market to the seedy and shady bars on notorious Hotel Street. |
Punchbowl Cemetery |
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Niche 440, in Court 1 at Punchbowl Cemetary holds the remains of Stanley Dunham. |
| Sandy sits in Court 1of Punchbowl Cemetary near the wall holding Stanley Dunham' remains. Punchbown is a tranquil place of beauty and dignity. |
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Madelyn Dunham, died after a long illness on the evening of November 2nd, 2008 less than 48 hours before the election that transformed young Barry into President Elect Barack Obama.
On Friday, November 14th, 2008 a public ceremony to commemorate Madelyn was held by many of her old friends, coworkers, neighbors and others who wished to pay respect to her. |
This was not her official funeral ceremony.
At her request the actual official ceremony will be a private, family only affair that will be held probably in late December when President Obama and his family return to Honolulu. Most probably, her ashes will not be interred with those of her husband, but rather, similar to her daughter Ann, they will be scattered in the ocean off Halona Point. |
Young Barry affectionately called Madelyn, ‘Toot’ (short for the Hawaiian term for grandmother, Tutu) She had a strong impact on his formative years. She was the stable rock in the family. A hard working woman whose attentiveness to detail and no nonsense approach to work caused her to rise up the corporate ladder and break the glass ceiling to become the head of the Escrow Department of the Bank of Hawaii and also become one of its first female Vice Presidents. |
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Reflective of Hawaiian tradition, a local musician paid tribute to Madelyn. |
Ruth Freedman and her friend, Gail were among the more than 150 who attended the ceremony. Ruth, a neighbor of Madelyn, is also a close friend of ours, Sandy & Dennis, the owners of www.ILoveHonolulu.com. As an accomplished harp musician, Ruth was graciously played at our wedding ceremony and reception. |
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Updated 081214 |
