Stanley Armour Dunham | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1918-03-23)March 23, 1918 Wichita, Kansas, U.S. |
| Died | February 8, 1992(1992-02-08) (aged 73) Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S. |
| Buried | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch | United States Army |
| Years of service | 1942–1945 |
| Rank | Sergeant |
| Unit | 1830th Ordnance Supply and Maintenance Company Third Army |
| Battles / wars | World War II |
| Spouse | |
| Children | Stanley Ann Dunham |
| Relations | Barack Obama (grandson) Maya Soetoro-Ng (granddaughter) |
| Other work | Salesman |
Stanley Armour Dunham (March 23, 1918 – February 8, 1992) was an American furniture salesman and the maternal grandfather ofBarack Obama, the 44thpresident of the United States. He and his wifeMadelyn Payne Dunham raised Obama from the age of 10 inHonolulu, Hawaii.[1][2]
Stanley Armour Dunham was born inWichita, Kansas, the younger of two sons to Ralph Waldo Emerson Dunham, Sr. and Ruth Lucille Armour. His father's ancestors settled inKempton, Indiana, in the 1840s, before relocating to Kansas.[3] His parents were married on October 3, 1915, at a home on South Saint Francis St. in Wichita, and openedThe Travelers' Cafe on William Street situated between the old firehouse and the old Wichita City Hotel.[4][5]
On November 25, 1926, at age 8, Dunham discovered his mother's body after she had committed suicide. Subsequently, Dunham's father placed him and his older brother Ralph Waldo Emerson Dunham, Jr. in the care of their maternal grandparents inEl Dorado, Kansas.[5] A rebellious teenager, Dunham allegedly punched his high school principal and spent some time drifting, hopping rail cars toChicago, thenCalifornia, and back again.[6] He marriedMadelyn Lee Payne on May 5, 1940, the night of hersenior prom.[7]
Dunham enlisted as a private in theU.S. Army on January 18, 1942, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and served in theEuropean Theatre of World War II with the 1830th Ordnance Supply and Maintenance Company, Aviation. During D-Day, this unit helped to support theNinth Air Force. Dunham and his brother were deployed to France six weeks after D-Day. Before theInvasion of Normandy, the brothers once met accidentally as Stanley Dunham went in search of rations at a hotel in London, where his brother Ralph Dunham happened to be staying.[8] Madelyn Dunham gave birth to their daughterStanley Ann Dunham, who was later known as Ann, at St. Francis Hospital in Wichita on November 29, 1942. During the war, Madelyn Dunham worked on aBoeing B-29 assembly line in Wichita.[9][10]
After two years of military service in Europe (1943–1945), Dunham was discharged from the U.S. Army on August 30, 1945. After the war, the family moved toBerkeley, California, so he could pursue study at theUniversity of California, Berkeley and then eventually back to El Dorado, Kansas, where Dunham managed a furniture store. In 1955, after the Dunhams moved toSeattle, Washington, Dunham worked as a salesman for the Standard-Grunbaum Furniture Company, and his daughter Ann attended middle school. The family lived in an apartment in the Wedgwood Estates in theWedgwood, Seattle neighborhood. In 1956 they moved to the Shorewood Apartments onMercer Island, a Seattle suburb. Ann attended high school there, and they stayed until she graduated in 1960. In 1957, Dunham started working for the Doces Majestic Furniture Company.[11][12][13]
The family then moved toHonolulu, Hawaii, where Dunham found a better furniture store opportunity. Madelyn Dunham started working at the Bank of Hawaii in 1960, and was promoted as one of the bank's first female vice presidents in 1970.[14][15]
InBarack Obama's memoir,Dreams From My Father, he wrote, "One of my earliest memories is of sitting on my grandfather's shoulders as the astronauts from one of the Apollo missions arrived at Hickam Air Force Base after a successful splashdown". At 10 years old, Barack Obama moved in with the Dunhams in Honolulu to attend school in the U.S. while his mother and stepfatherLolo Soetoro were living inJakarta, Indonesia. His mother later came back to Hawaii to pursue graduate studies, but when she returned to Indonesia in 1977 for her master's fieldwork, Obama stayed in the United States with his grandparents. Obama wrote in his memoir,Dreams From My Father, "I'd arrived at an unspoken pact with my grandparents: I could live with them and they'd leave me alone so long as I kept my trouble out of sight".[16][17]
Dunham died inHonolulu, Hawaii, on February 8, 1992, and is interred in thePunchbowl National Cemetery.[16]
Dunham is a direct descendant ofJonathan Singletary Dunham, a prominent early American settler who left thePlymouth Colony to build the firstgristmill inNew Jersey.
The most recent native White European ancestor was Falmouth Kearney, a farmer who emigrated fromMoneygall,County Offaly, Ireland, during theGreat Irish Famine and settled inJefferson Township, Tipton County, Indiana, United States. Kearney's youngest daughter, Mary Ann (Kearney) Dunham, was Stanley Dunham's paternal grandmother.[18]
In addition to his grandson Barack Obama, Stanley Dunham's distant relatives include six U.S. presidents:James Madison,Harry Truman,Lyndon Johnson,Jimmy Carter,George H. W. Bush andGeorge W. Bush.[19][20][21][22] Dunham andWild Bill Hickok are sixth cousins, four times removed, through Jacob Dunham.[23]
His 10th Great Grandfather is Samuel Fuller, Mayflower passenger, Deacon, Doctor, and Diplomat <ref>[1] Dozens of other grandparents in British Colonial America like Edward Armstrong, David Kuhns. John Holloway, William Scott Goodson, Michael Disharoone, Richard Bradford, Richard Taylor, Jr., Capt. William Barker, Richard Pace, Capt. Samuel Maycock, Mary Knowles, Joshua Francis Poythress, John Sloman, John Coggan, Capt. Samuel Showell, John Parker Sr, Garrett Andrew Anderson, John Walton, John Fisher II, Henry Bagwell Esq, Charles Godfrey, William Bowen I, Thomas Mumford III, Joseph Watkins, George Booker I, Richard Hand, Thomas Ranson Purefoy Jr., Johann Michael Mallo, Johan Ludwig Busch, Matthias Theiss, Reverend John Jones, John E Walter, Johan Leonard Bergheimer, John Chenoweth, John M Polk, Francis Roberts, Edmund Sheffield, John Wooledge, Benjamin John Littel-Little were all British Colonial Grandparents of the former president.
His 34th Great Grandfather is Charlemange <ref>[2] and many other Frankish Kings like Pippin. Other great grandfathers of the former president include Kings of Wales, Ireland, and trace all the way back to biblical Kings and Pharaohs. Even the Luo people trace back to the Jewish faith.[citation needed]
