Mother Talkers

The "white woman from Kansas"

by Sue in Queens

Fri Mar 14, 2008 at 02:21:35 PM PDT

We've all heard Barack Obama's story many times, but I've heard very little about his mother than the (now trite) 'white woman from Kansas' line.  So, I was pleased to see this biographical story in today's NYTimes.  Maybe I"m the only one who was so unaware, but until today, I never even knew her name.

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Seems Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro was a free-spirit, a little bit of a wanderer, and a committed social reformer

"She was a very, very big thinker," said Nancy Barry, a former president of Women’s World Banking, an international network of microfinance providers, where Ms. Soetoro worked in New York City in the early 1990s. "I think she was not at all personally ambitious, I think she cared about the core issues, and I think she was not afraid to speak truth to power."

Independent and brave enough to leave Kansas for Hawaii, to marry men who her parents did not approve of, and to raise her two children with passion and a committed world vision.

"She gave us a very broad understanding of the world," her daughter said. "She hated bigotry. She was very determined to be remembered for a life of service and thought that service was really the true measure of a life."

She saw her role in the world to be helping others, including her time in Indonesia

She became a consultant for the United States Agency for International Development on setting up a village credit program, then a Ford Foundation program officer in Jakarta specializing in women’s work. Later, she was a consultant in Pakistan, then joined Indonesia’s oldest bank to work on what is described as the world’s largest sustainable microfinance program, creating services like credit and savings for the poor.

I always see Barack Obama as a man on his own - other than his wife, he seems without family.  Reading this story and "meeting" his mother and sister added another dimension in my head to this man who may be our next President.

Tags: barack obama, momma, Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro, history, biography (all tags)

Permalink | 9 comments

  • Thank you posting this, Sue! (0 / 0)

    After I voted for Obama, I realized that I knew nothing of his personal life. I began googling in Michelle -- to learn about her -- and his parents -- to see if they were alive. I was very sad to learn that Obama's mother was deceased and had not lived to see her son even become a senator. How proud would she be to see him today? It gave me shivers.

    I agree that there is so much more depth to this woman than the trite "white woman from Kansas." What I would give to be able to see an interview with her!

    by Elisa on Fri Mar 14, 2008 at 02:28:25 PM PDT

  • a woman named Stanley. (0 / 0)

    Cool.

    This article made me teary. Motherhood has turned me into the biggest sap!

    by Erika on Fri Mar 14, 2008 at 02:32:12 PM PDT

  • That was a wonderful article (0 / 0)

    I cried too. I saw the picture of him in the article at Harvard Law and thought how proud she would've been seeing it. (Never mind today!) What an incredible woman she was.

    by shenanigans on Fri Mar 14, 2008 at 02:39:50 PM PDT

  • I knew a little about her (0 / 0)

    But I just read "Dreams" a few weeks ago, and in the edition I have, Obama writes in the intro that if he knew his mother was going to pass away shortly after it was published, he would have spent more time in the book describing her influence in his life.  That's the part that got me!

    by cynmill on Fri Mar 14, 2008 at 02:58:28 PM PDT

  • thank you for posting this! (0 / 0)

    that nyt article is great- i loved the photos- i didn't even know what she looked like

    by thankgodforairamerica on Fri Mar 14, 2008 at 03:23:19 PM PDT

  • Very appropriate for today... (0 / 0)

    as the media explodes in this latest controversy dealing with race and identity.

    by tjb22 on Fri Mar 14, 2008 at 08:53:43 PM PDT

  • His Mom went to high school (0 / 0)

    here in Seattle--Mercer Island.  It looks like they quoted her friend from high school in this article.  Our newspaper had an article a while back about her and it had much of the same information.  She really was an inspirational woman.

    I wish the MSM would tell us more about her instead of Obama's minister.

    My gosh, if I was held accountable for everything my Episcopal priest has said from my church where I have gone for 18 years, I'd go nuts.  We do not agree on everything but I'm not switching churches.

    by janetle on Sat Mar 15, 2008 at 10:08:44 AM PDT

  • Funny Thing (0 / 0)

    I read this article and was amazed and inspired... and understood immediately why the Obama campaign talks only about her as the "white woman from Kansas." For a certain sect of our population, Stanley would no doubt be considered "too foreign, too unorthodox, and waaaaay too liberal" in her thoughts and actions. I shutter to think of the line about how she didn't really believe in marriage coming up in the future- do you want a president raised by a woman who didn't believe in marriage?!?!"

    I will continue to find her amazing, and it's no surprise this community does. God willing this election won't be horribly bloody and ridiculous, but you never can tell.

    by lilianna28 on Sat Mar 15, 2008 at 07:53:37 PM PDT

  • thanks for that, Sue (0 / 0)

    I'd read about Barack's sister a few months ago - she's also iconclastic and it's easy to see where she gets it from! One of the personal traits I've always most admired about Barack is the fact that he seems so comfortable taking a backseat to strong women and hasn't the slightest bit of defensiveness in acknowledging his wife's role, Oprah, etc. I love it.

    by Rachel on Sun Mar 16, 2008 at 07:35:48 PM PDT

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