At a private service held at the First Unitarian Church in the neighborhood of Nuuanu, Honolulu, President-elect Barack Obama, his family and close friends paid tribute to his maternal grandmother, who died of cancer, aged 86, merely two days before his historic win. Obama's half-sister Maya Soetoro-Ng, and her husband, Konrad Ng also attended the service.

The service, at a two-story house converted into a place of worship, was closed to the media.

Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Payne Dunham, whom he fondly called "Toot", lent stability to his youthful years. During his campaigning, he often referred to her as his "rock", mentioning that he owed his rise to the nation's presidency to her and the lessons she had taught him.

After the memorial service, the Obama family and a few friends drove to the cliffs - the place, east of Honolulu, where Obama had left flowers in his mother's memory. climbed over a stone wall and down onto rocky ledges to scatter Dunham's ashes at Lanai Lookout.

Climbing over a stone wall and going down to the rocky ledges, at an ocean overlook called the Lanai Lookout, the Obama family and friends scattered Dunham's ashes.