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What impact did Stanley Ann Dunham have on Barack Obama’s life?

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Barack Obama described his mother as “the biggest influence on my life” and noted that her decisions, including leaving him with his grandparents in Hawaii when he was 10 so she could continue her education, had a profound impact on him. He said of her in 2004: “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.”