Ann Dunham
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Stanley Ann Dunham (1942 - 1995)
Stanley Ann (Ann) Dunham aka Soetoro
Born 29 Nov 1942 in Wichita, Kansas, United Statesmap
Ancestors ancestors
Daughter of Stanley Armour Dunham and Madelyn Lee (Payne) Dunham
Wife of Barack Hussein Obama Sr. — married 2 Feb 1961 (to 1964) in Maui, Hawaiimap
Wife of Lolo (Martodihardjo) Soetoro — married 1966 (to 1980) in Jakarta, Indonesiamap
Descendants descendants
Mother of Barack Obama Jr. and [private daughter (1970s - unknown)]
Died 7 Nov 1995 in Honolulu, Oahu, Honolulu, Hawaii, United Statesmap
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Profile last modified 21 Jul 2020 | Created 18 Jul 2009
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Contents
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1 Biography
1.1 Name
1.2 1942 Birth
1.3 Career
1.4 1961 First marriage to Barack Obama, Sr.
1.5 1965 Second Marriage to Lolo Soetoro
1.6 1972 Return to Hawaii
1.7 Death
1.8 Posthumous Recognition
2 Children
3 Sources
Biography
"Stanley Ann Dunham (November 29, 1942 – November 7, 1995) was the mother of Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States, and an American anthropologist who specialized in economic anthropology and rural development.[1]
Name
Dunham's name changed several times during her life:
Stanley Ann Dunham was her name at birth
Stanley Dunham -- through high school,
Ann Dunham in graduate school
Ann Obama during her first marriage
Ann Soetoro during her second marriage
Ann Sutoro, after her second divorce, while in Indonesia
Ann Dunham after her return to Hawaii. [2]
1942 Birth
Stanley Ann Dunham was born November 29, 1942 in Wichita, Kansas, as the only child of Stanley Armour Dunham (1918-1992) and his wife Madelyn Lee Payne. [3] She spent her childhood in California, Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas, her teenage years in Mercer Island, Washington, and most of her adult life in Hawaii and Indonesia.[4]
She was of predominantly English ancestry, with some German, Swiss, Scottish, Irish, and Welsh ancestry.[5] Wild Bill Hickok is her sixth cousin, five times removed.[6] Ancestry.com announced on July 30, 2012, after using a combination of old documents and yDNA analysis, that Dunham's mother may have been descended from African John Punch, who was an indentured servant/slave in seventeenth-century colonial Virginia.[7][8]
Career
She was an American anthropologist who specialized in economic anthropology and rural development.[1]
Dunham studied at the East–West Center and at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in Honolulu, where she attained a bachelor's of anthropology [9] and master's and PhD in anthropology.[10]
Interested in craftsmanship, weaving and the role of women in cottage industries, Dunham's research focused on women's work on the island of Java and blacksmithing in Indonesia. To address the problem of poverty in rural villages, she created microcredit programs while working as a consultant for the United States Agency for International Development. Dunham was also employed by the Ford Foundation in Jakarta and she consulted with the Asian Development Bank in Gujranwala, Pakistan. Towards the latter part of her life, she worked with Bank Rakyat Indonesia, where she helped apply her research to the largest microfinance program in the world.[10]
In an interview, Barack Obama referred to his mother as "the dominant figure in my formative years ... The values she taught me continue to be my touchstone when it comes to how I go about the world of politics." [11]
1961 First marriage to Barack Obama, Sr.
While attending a Russian language class, Dunham met Barack Obama, Sr., the school's first African student.[12][13]At the age of 23, Obama Sr. had come to Hawaii to pursue his education, leaving behind a pregnant wife and infant son in his home town of Nyang'oma Kogelo in Kenya. Dunham and Obama Sr. were married on the Hawaiian island of Maui on February 2, 1961, despite parental opposition from both families.[11][14]Dunham was three months pregnant. [11][15] Obama Sr. eventually informed Dunham about his first marriage in Kenya but claimed he was divorced. Years later, she would discover this was false. [13]
Obama Sr.'s first wife, Kezia, later said she had granted her consent for him to marry a second wife, in keeping with Luo customs.[16] The Standard (Kenya). in keeping with the Luo customs, Obama Senior sought her consent to take another wife, which she granted.
Dunham filed for divorce in January 1964, which Obama Sr. did not contest.[15]
1965 Second Marriage to Lolo Soetoro
"It was at the East–West Center that Dunham met Lolo Soetoro,[17] a Javanese [10] surveyor who had come to Honolulu in September 1962 on an East–West Center grant to study geography at the University of Hawaii. Javanese often have only one name. "Lolo" was a nickname given to Soetoro in childhood. Soetoro graduated from the University of Hawaii with an M.A. in geography in June 1964. In 1965, Soetoro and Dunham were married in Hawaii, and in 1966, Soetoro returned to Indonesia. Dunham graduated from the University of Hawaii with a B.A. in anthropology on August 6, 1967, and moved in October the same year with her six-year-old son to Jakarta, Indonesia, to rejoin her husband.[18]"
1972 Return to Hawaii
A year later, in August 1972, Dunham, with the help of her employer (LPPM), obtained an Asia Foundation grant to begin graduate study in anthropology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.[19] She and her daughter moved back to Hawaii where they rejoined Obama. [19]
Death
She died November 7, 1995 (aged 52) in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States of Uterine cancer. Her ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean off Koko Head, Oahu, Hawaii.
President Obama talked about Dunham's death in a 30-second campaign advertisement ("Mother") arguing for health care reform. The ad featured a photograph of Dunham holding a young Obama in her arms as Obama talks about her last days worrying about expensive medical bills.[20] The topic also came up in a 2007 speech in Santa Barbara:[20]
"I remember my mother. She was 52 years old when she died of ovarian cancer, and you know what she was thinking about in the last months of her life? She wasn't thinking about getting well. She wasn't thinking about coming to terms with her own mortality. She had been diagnosed just as she was transitioning between jobs. And she wasn't sure whether insurance was going to cover the medical expenses because they might consider this a preexisting condition. I remember just being heartbroken, seeing her struggle through the paperwork and the medical bills and the insurance forms. So, I have seen what it's like when somebody you love is suffering because of a broken health care system. And it's wrong. It's not who we are as a people.[20]
Posthumous Recognition
After her son was elected President, interest renewed in Dunham's work: The University of Hawaii held a symposium about her research; an exhibition of Dunham's Indonesian batik textile collection toured the United States; and in December 2009, Duke University Press published Surviving against the Odds: Village Industry in Indonesia, a book based on Dunham's original 1992 dissertation.
Janny Scott, an author and former New York Times reporter, published a biography about Ann Dunham's life titled A Singular Woman in 2011.
Posthumous interest has also led to the creation of The Ann Dunham Soetoro Endowment in the Anthropology Department at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, as well as the Ann Dunham Soetoro Graduate Fellowships, intended to fund students associated with the East–West Center (EWC) in Honolulu, Hawaii.[21]
In December 2010 Dunham was awarded the Bintang Jasa Utama, the highest civilian award in Indonesia.[22]
Children
Barack Hussein Obama (b. 1961), son of Ann Dunham and Barack Obama, Sr. (Married 1961-1964). On August 4, 1961, at the age of 18, Dunham gave birth to her first child, Barack Obama II.[23] Friends in the state of Washington recall her visiting with her month-old baby in 1961.[24][25][26]
Maya Kassandra Soetoro (b. 1970), daughter of Ann Dunham and Lolo Soetoro (Married 1965-1980) . On August 15, 1970, Soetoro and Dunham had a daughter, Maya Kassandra Soetoro.[27]
