Much has been made of Barack Obama’s biracial background, but the president-elect always stresses that strong women shaped his life and character.
Obama met his wife, Michelle, when he served as a summer associate at the law firm she worked at in Chicago. They married in 1992.
“I can be myself around her, she knows me well,” Obama said in a 1996 interview with Le Monde that wasn’t published until this year. “I completely trust her, but at the same time in certain respects, she remains a mystery to me.”
During the presidential campaign, Michelle Obama proved a durable asset to her husband, and is expected to be both helpmate and partner as first lady.
“Once you’re involved in politics, your life becomes public and the people who scrutinize it are not always well-intentioned,” Michelle Obama told Le Monde. “I’m rather secretive and I like to surround myself with people I care about and whose loyalty I trust.”
On election night, Obama called his wife “my best friend,” “the rock of our family and the love of my life.”
Another strong influence was Obama’s maternal grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who died in Hawaii two days before he won the election. Obama’s grandmother and grandfather Stanley Dunham, who died in 1992, raised Obama during his teenage years in Hawaii.
In his speech on race in Philadelphia, and later in his 2008 convention speech, Obama talked about his grandmother and how her values influenced him.
“She’s the one who taught me about hard work,” Obama said “She’s the one who put off buying a new car or a new dress for herself so that I could have a better life. She poured everything she had into me.”
Obama has called the death of his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, the worst experience of his life. She died in 1995 of ovarian cancer, after a life of travel and adventure as a cultural anthropologist.
“I know that she was the kindest, most generous spirit I have ever known, and that what is best in me I owe to her,” Obama wrote in a preface to the re-release of his book “Dreams from My Father.”
His daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, also are proving a source of strength to the incoming president. He often speaks of how proud he is of both girls, and recently told ABC News he marvels at their resilience.
“They seemed to thrive,” Obama said of the girls’ move to Washington. “I’m trying to figure out why it is that they don’t seem to be fazed by anything. People think — you know, folks think I’m cool, they are a lot cooler than I am. They just don’t seem to be intimidated.”
