Are Obama's parents still alive?

[liberalnurse]

I never hear about his parents beyond childhood. Anyone know their where abouts if they are still among the living?

[flamingyouth]

1. No. His father died in a car accident and his mother died from ovarian cancer.

[bicentennial_baby]

2. No.

His father was killed in a car accident, iirc, and his mother died of cancer in the past decade.

[livetohike]

3. His mother died of cancer at age 53

Not sure about his father....

[Pirate Smile]

4. He talks about his mother's death in almost every stump speech.

He has commercials on it.

[LisaL]

12. Yep. Just saw one five minutes ago.

[LSparkle]

5. Doesn't he have a sister?

I thought I saw her at one of his rallies in New Hampshire.

[madame defarge]

8. Yes, she lives in Hawaii (I think)

She's his half-sister.

[madame defarge]

10. More info about Obama's sister

37-year-old Soetoro-Ng, a high-school teacher in Honolulu whose red hatchback is plastered with her brother's bumper stickers, says she always knew Barack was destined for great things.

http://www.digg.com/2008_us_elections/Obama_s_Sister

[Starbucks Anarchist]

6. Both are deceased.

His father died in a car accident around 20-25 years ago, I believe, and his mother died of cancer about a decade ago.

[blogslut]

7. No

n/t

[liberalnurse]

9. Thanks folks.

O8)

[LisaL]

11. I just saw a commercial where he talked about his mother.

She is dead.

[Bucky]

13. Once he was successfully planted in America as a sleeper, al-Qaeda had them rubbed out.

I don't really mean this. I'm only printing this here so I can sue Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter for plagiarism when they make this same joke next fall....

...against our party's nominee!! Wheeeeeee!!!!

[flpoljunkie]

14. Here's a 1980 photo of Barack Obama with his grandmother, Sara Hussein Obama. His first visit.

BARACK WITH HIS KENYAN GRANDMOTHER, SARAH HUSSEIN OBAMA

[unc70]

15. Both parents dead - ovarian cancer; wreck (dwi) - 7 or 8 half brothers/sisters

Obama's family is really complicated.

He as a half sister from his mother's second marriage.

His father had a wife (Kezia, who he "married" when she was 16) and two children in Kenya when he came to the US for college paid for by the Kennedy Foundation. Senator Obama's mother was 18 when she met the older Obama (then 23), the first African exchange student at the University of Hawaii.

His father left the age 2 Barack to attend Harvard graduate school. There the father met Ruth, another white student, who became his third wife and the mother of two more children (one killed drunk driving a motorcycle). He returned to Kenya with Ruth after Harvard where he was appointed to a senior position as an economist for the govenment. He continued seeing his first wife Kezia and father two more children with her. He might have fathered an eighth child by another women.

Apparently, the senior Barack Obama charming, intelligent, well-liked, and reasonably well-connected in Kenya, but he was also a womanizer, an indifferent father, a man of many gifts and advantages that he rarely used for anyone's advantage but his own. The senior Barack Obama had such a serious drinking problem that it caused him to lose his job, be divorced by Ruth for his abusive behavior, lose his legs in a car crash while returning home drunk, and finally losing his life in a similar crash.

Most of Obama's siblings and his "step-mother" Kezia now live in the UK. I believe that 1 or 2 brothers still live in Kenya and maybe one of his grandfather's wives is still living. She is the one shown in the "grandmother in Kenya" pictures and stories.

Because so many family members live in the UK and because of colonial ties with Kenya, the British press has reported a lot on the extended Obama family. As an outsider, it seems there is still a lot of denial, positive spin, resentment, and conflict that co-exists along with the more-visible story told in Obama's books and elsewhere.

One of the saddest aspects of all is that while Obama was writing the book pursuing the fantasy he had of his father, he was losing his mother to cancer.

[goodhue]

16. No

He talks about his mother's death on the stump when discussing health care