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Obama's grandmother dies a day before election

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-04 06:29

HONOLULU – A day before the US presidential election, Barack Obama announced the death Monday of his grandmother, who helped raise him and who he praised as the cornerstone of his family.

The Democratic presidential candidate announced the news in a joint statement with his sister Maya Soetoro-Ng. He said his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, had died peacefully after a battle with cancer.

This photo provided by the presidential campaign of Barack Obama shows Obama in 1979 during his high school graduation in Hawaii with his grandmother Madelyn Lee Payne Dunham. Sen. Obama says his grandmother died Monday, November 3, 2008. [Agencies]

He said: "She was the cornerstone of our family, and a woman of extraordinary accomplishment, strength, and humility. She was the person who encouraged and allowed us to take chances."

The candidate learned of her death Monday morning while he was campaigning in Jacksonville, Fla. He planned to go ahead with campaign appearances.

Late last month, Obama took a break from campaigning and flew to Hawaii to be with the 86-year-old Dunham.

Obama said the decision to go to Hawaii was easy to make, telling CBS that he "got there too late" when his mother died of ovarian cancer in 1995 at 53, and wanted to make sure "that I don't make the same mistake twice."