Ann Dunham

President Barack Obama's family tree reaches from his father's tiny Kenyan village to the White House in a single generation.

US President Barack Obama surprised three women this week when he called them to congratulate them for Mother's Day, which is celebrated on the second Sunday in May, the White House has said.

Barack Obama has a personal background like no other president in US history. His mother, Ann Dunham, was a white woman from Kansas and his father, Barack Obama Sr., was a black Kenyan who saw little of his son after a divorce when the boy was a toddler. Mr Obama spent much of his childhood in Indonesia and then Hawaii, where he lived with his mate...

The photograph showed the son, but my eye gravitated toward the mother. That first glimpse was surprising -- the stout, pale-skinned woman in sturdy sandals, standing squarely a half-step ahead of the lithe, darker-skinned figure to her left. His elastic-band body bespoke discipline, even asceticism. Her form was well padded, territory ceded long a...

President Barack Obama's family tree reaches from his father's tiny Kenyan village to the White House in a single generation.

US President Barack Obama surprised three women this week when he called them to congratulate them for Mother's Day, which is celebrated on the second Sunday in May, the White House has said.

Barack Obama has a personal background like no other president in US history. His mother, Ann Dunham, was a white woman from Kansas and his father, Barack Obama Sr., was a black Kenyan who saw little of his son after a divorce when the boy was a toddler. Mr Obama spent much of his childhood in Indonesia and then Hawaii, where he lived with his mate...

The photograph showed the son, but my eye gravitated toward the mother. That first glimpse was surprising -- the stout, pale-skinned woman in sturdy sandals, standing squarely a half-step ahead of the lithe, darker-skinned figure to her left. His elastic-band body bespoke discipline, even asceticism. Her form was well padded, territory ceded long a...