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Ann Dunham, Barack Obama, Obama childhood mother

Barack Obama

The life of Barack Obama

The path of the president-elect, from childhood to party leader

/ 25 PHOTOS
Ann Dunham, Barack Obama, Obama childhood mother

Mother and child

** TO GO WITH STORY SLUGGED OBAMA SEMBLANZA ** **FILE* This 1960's photo provided by the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., shows Obama with his mother Ann Dunham. Dunham met Obama's father, Barack Obama Sr. from Kenya, when both were students at the University of Hawaii at Manoa; they married in 1960. (AP Photo/Obama Presidential Campaign) ** FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY,NO SALES **
Anonymous / Obama presidential Campaign
Barack Obama

Family portrait

** TO GO WITH STORY SLUGGED OBAMA SEMBLANZA ** ** FILE ** This 1970's photo provided by the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., shows the presidential hopeful, Obama, 9, right, with his mother Ann Dunham, center, his Indonesian step-father Lolo Soetoro, and his less than one-year-old sister Maya Soetoro in Jakarta, Indonesia. (AP Photo/Obama Presidential Campaign)
Anonymous / Obama presidential Campaign
Barack Obama

Father and son

** TO GO WITH STORY SLUGGED OBAMA SEMBLANZA ** FILE ** This undated photo released by Obama for America shows Barack Obama, 10, and his father, also named Barack Obama. Obama's father left the family to study at Harvard when Barack was just two, returning only once. Obama wrote poignantly about this visit in his memoir, remembering the basketball his father gave him, the African records they danced to, the Dave Brubeck concert they attended. Obama, then 10, never saw his father again. (AP Photo/Obama for America)
Anonymous / OBAMA FOR AMERICA
Barak \"Barry\" Obama

'Barry O'Bomber'

** TO GO WITH STORY SLUGGED OBAMA SEMBLANZA ** ** FILE ** In this 1977 file photo provided by the The Oahuan, yearbook of Punahou School, Barack Obama, second row center, is seen with is junior varsity basketball team in this 1977 yearbook class photo in Honolulu. Obama loved basketball and as a forward dubbed \"Barry O'Bomber,\" he favored a left-handed double pump shot. During his senior year, the varsity team captured the state championship. (AP Photo/Punahoe Schools, File) ** NO SALES **
Anonymous / OAHUAN, YEARBOOK OF PUNAHOU SCHO
Stanley Armour Dunham, Madelyn Payne, Barack Obama

Proud grandparents

** TO GO WITH STORY SLUGGED OBAMA SEMBLANZA ** ** FILE ** This photo provided by the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., shows the presidential hopeful, Obama, in 1979 during his high school graduation in Hawaii with his maternal grandparents, Stanley Armour Dunham and his wife Madelyn Payne, both natives of Kansas. (AP Photo/Obama Presidential Campaign) ** FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY, NO SALES**
Anonymous / Obama presidential Campaign
Barack Obama

Wedding bells

** TO GO WITH STORY SLUGGED OBAMA SEMBLANZA ** ** FILE ** This photo released by Obama for America shows Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and his bride Michelle Robinson, a fellow Harvard Law School graduate, on their wedding day Oct. 18, 1992, in Chicago, Illinois. (AP Photo/Obama for America) ** NO SALES **
Anonymous / OBAMA FOR AMERICA
Life of Barak Hussein Obama

African visit

1995, Nyang'oma, Kenya: Barack Hussein Obama (born August 4, 1961) is the junior U.S. Senator from Illinois. In November 2004, he was elected to the Senate as a Democrat. He is married to Michelle Obama and is a father to two daughters. On January 3, 2008 he came first in the Iowa caucus for the American presidency. ///Barack Obama sits with his step-grandmother, Sarah Ogwel Onyango, 83, who raised Obama's father Barack Obama Sr., outside of her house in Western Kenya.. Credit: Polaris
Barack Obama

Law school student

Newly-elected pres. of HARVARD LAW REVIEW, law student, & former community program dir. Barack Obama. (Photo by Steve Liss//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)
Steve Liss / Time Life Pictures
Barack Obama

Windy City return

** TO GO WITH STORY SLUGGED OBAMA SEMBLANZA ** ** FILE **This photo released by Obama for America shows a Barack Obama teaching at the University of Chicago Law School. After Harvard Law School, Obama returned to Chicago, joined a small civil rights firm, ran a voter registration drive, and lectured on constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School. (AP Photo/Obama for America, File)
Anonymous / OBAMA FOR AMERICA
OBAMA

Husband and father

Illinois State Senator and U.S. Senate Democratic candidate Barack Obama leans over to kiss his daughter Sasha, 2, before leaving the Salem Baptist Church Sunday, March 14, 2004 in Chicago. Looking on is Barack's wife Michelle. Barack was at the church to speak to supporters before next weeks elections. (AP Photo/Steve Matteo)
Steve Matteo / AP
Barack Obama

'The Speech'

** TO GO WITH STORY SLUGGED OBAMA SEMBLANZA ** ** FILE ** In this July 27, 2004, file photo Senate candidate Barack Obama, who speaks to delegates during the Democratic National Convention in Boston. Some call it The Speech, a 17-minute star-making turn. Obama walks on stage an unknown, and walked off as a star. Four months after the convention, Obama won the U.S. Senate seat in a landslide. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian, File)
Kevork Djansezian / AP
Illinois U.S. Senator-elect Barack Obama, holding his daughter Malia, 6, and his wife Michelle, holding their daughter Sasha, 3, are covered in confetti after Obama delivered his acceptance speech in Chicago, Tuesday, Nov. 2,  2004.  Obama, only the fifth black U.S. Senator to be elected in history, defeated Republican Alan Keyes in the nation's first Senate race with two black major-party candidates.  (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

Sweet victory

Illinois U.S. Senator-elect Barack Obama, holding his daughter Malia, 6, and his wife Michelle, holding their daughter Sasha, 3, are covered in confetti after Obama delivered his acceptance speech in Chicago, Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2004. Obama, only the fifth black U.S. Senator to be elected in history, defeated Republican Alan Keyes in the nation's first Senate race with two black major-party candidates. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)
M. Spencer Green / AP
OBAMA MEEKS

Fond farewell

** FILE ** In this Nov. 8, 2004, file photo before heading off to Washington and the U.S. Senate, Sen.-elect Barack Obama, D-Ill., back to camera, gets a hug from state Sen. James T. Meeks, I-Chicago, while lawmakers give Obama a standing ovation in the Illinois Senate as he said goodbye to his former colleagues at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, Ill. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File)
Seth Perlman / AP
Senate Democrats Hold Policy Meeting

Going up?

WASHINGTON - MAY 10: U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) (C) stands in an elevator after a meeting on Capitol Hill May 10, 2005 in Washington, DC. The Senate Democratic Policy Committee held its weekly closed luncheon meeting today. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images North America
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama

Collegial competitors

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., speaks with Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., right, during the annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on Wednesday, July 19, 2006 in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Evan Vucci / AP
Barack Obama

African tour

U.S. Senator Barack Obama visits a tent camp for people displaced by floods earlier this month, in Dire Dawa in eastern Ethiopia Thursday, Aug. 31, 2006. Obama said the American military would continue to help the devastated region. In eastern, southern and northeastern Ethiopia, flooding caused by heavy rains has killed more than 600 people and displaced tens of thousands, according to U.N. officials. (AP Photo/Les Neuhaus)
Les Neuhaus / AP
Senator Barack Obama in Iowa

Test run

Senator Barack Obama, was the featured speaker at Senator Tom HarkinÕs 29th-annual Steak Fry in Indianola, Iowa. Obama, who was campaigning for fellow Democrats in the run-up to the November elections, has been followed closely since announcing his first trip to Iowa, the critical testing ground in the presidential nomination process. Though Obama has not announced his candidacy for president, enthusiastic supporters crowded the event to see and hear the democrat who has caught the nationÕs attention.
Danny Wilcox Frazier/redux / Redux
Barack Obama Signs Copies Of His New Book

Author, author

SKOKIE, IL - OCTOBER 18: U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) shakes a hand while signing copies of his new book \"Audacity of Hope\" at the Barnes & Noble bookstore October 18, 2006 in Skokie, Illinois. Obama is in the midst of a book tour that will include television appearances as well as signings. According to reports, Obama is concidering a run in the 2008 presidencial election. According to reports, Obama is considering a run in the 2008 presidential election. (Photo by Tim Boyle/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Barack Obama
Tim Boyle / Getty Images North America
U.S. Senator Obama speaks at a New Hampshire Democratic Party election celebration in Manchester

Granite State test

U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) speaks at a New Hampshire Democratic Party election celebration in Manchester, New Hampshire December 10, 2006. It is Obama's first visit to the political proving grounds of New Hampshire, stoking the growing buzz about a possible 2008 White House run by the rising party star. REUTERS/Brian Snyder (UNITED STATES)
Brian Snyder / X90051
Barack Obama

The audicity of hope

** FILE ** In this Feb. 10, 2007, file photo, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., waves to spectators as he arrives to announce his candidacy for president of the United States at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill. After a scant two years in the U.S. Senate the man, who was an obscure state lawmaker not long before, returned to Springfield to the steps of the Old Capitol, to make another big speech: he was running for president of the United States. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)
Charles Rex Arbogast / AP
78692679

Turning point

Democratic presidential hopeful and Illinois Senator Barack Obama greets supporters during his caucus night rally at Hy-Vee Hall in Des Moines, Iowa, 03 January 2008. Obama surged to a stunning victory in the first 2008 White House nominating contest 03 January 2008, dealing a severe blow to Hillary Clinton's bid to be America's first woman president. AFP PHOTO/SAUL LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)
Saul Loeb / AFP
80387291

Member of the elite?

Democratic Presidential hopeful US Senator Barack Obama rolls a bowling ball on March 29, 2008 at the Pleasant Valley Recreation Center in Altoona, Pennsylvania. AFP PHOTO/Stan HONDA (Photo credit should read STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images)
Stan Honda / AFP
Barack Obama

Fallout over pastor

Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., arrives for a news conference in Winston-Salem N.C., Tuesday, April 29, 2008. Obama spoke about the latest assertion by his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, that criticism of his fiery sermons is an attack on the black church. \"I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened by the spectacle that we saw yesterday,\" Obama said and added that Wright's comments do not accurately portray the perspective of the black church. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Jae C. Hong / AP
Image: Sen. Barack Obama at rally in St. Paul, Minn.

Victory in June

Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill. speaks during a election night rally in St Paul, Minn. Tuesday, June 3, 2008. Obama claimed the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday night in a long-time-coming victory speech that minced no words about his opponent in the fall campaign, Republican John McCain. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
Chris Carlson / AP
83306963

A historic moment, a man of history

President-elect Barack Obama appears on stage with his family members for his victory speech at his election party in Chicago November 4, 2008. AFP PHOTO / TIMOTHY A. CLARY (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)
Timothy A. Clary / AFP
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