Barack Obama at service for his grandmother in Honolulu
HUGH GENTRY/Landov
Madelyn Payne Dunham, whom Obama (and Dunham's friends) referred to as "Toot," died Nov. 2, two days before her grandson was elected 44th President of the United States – and the nation's first African-American commander in chief. She was 86.
On Tuesday, Obama, who is vacationing in Hawaii this week, bypassed reporters' questions at the small home that had been converted into the First Unitarian Church in the neighborhood of Nuuanu, reports the Associated Press, which also quoted aides as saying Obama's half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, and her husband, Konrad Ng, as being in attendance at the service.
Afterwards, the president-elect drove to cliffs east of Honolulu, where he and about 20 relatives climbed over a stonewall to the rocky ledges of Lanai Lookout.
There, they scattered Dunham's ashes.
Earlier this year, AP reports, Obama left flowers at the same place, in memory of his mother.
