--- title: President Obama's Aunt Dies at Age 61 description: Zeituni Onyango was granted asylum in 2010 after years of fighting deportation canonical: https://time.com/54320/barack-obama-aunt-dies-zeituni-onyango/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-08T21:43:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T07:12:14.234Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Obama's Aunt Dies at Age 61 og:description: Zeituni Onyango was granted asylum in 2010 after years of fighting deportation og:url: https://time.com/54320/barack-obama-aunt-dies-zeituni-onyango/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4a7d99d01aaafd16/69868997361760b3ab90b5c0/ap091124061218.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Zeituni Onyango og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Obama's Aunt Dies at Age 61 twitter:description: Zeituni Onyango was granted asylum in 2010 after years of fighting deportation twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4a7d99d01aaafd16/69868997361760b3ab90b5c0/ap091124061218.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Barack Obama's Aunt Has Died by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Apr 8, 2014 9:43 PM UTC  President Obama's aunt, Zeituni Onyango President Obama's aunt, Zeituni OnyangoJosh Reynolds—AP by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Apr 8, 2014 9:43 PM UTC President Barack Obama’s aunt, Zeituni Onyango, who fought deportation and was granted asylum in the United States, [died](http://www.wcvb.com/news/controversial-aunt-of-president-obama-dies/25381044) Monday. Onyango, 61, died Monday at a rehab hospital after being treated for cancer and respiratory illness, her immigration lawyer said. She was born in Kenya and granted asylum in the United States in 2010. Her first asylum request, however, was denied in 2002 and she was ordered to leave the country in 2004, but she continued to live in Boston public housing, reports WCVB Boston. Her situation was made public days before Obama was elected in November 2008. Obama said at the time he did not know his aunt was living illegally in the country. Onyango was the stepsister of the president’s father, Barack Obama Sr. \[[WCVB](http://www.wcvb.com/news/controversial-aunt-of-president-obama-dies/25381044)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/54320/barack-obama-aunt-dies-zeituni-onyango/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/54320/barack-obama-aunt-dies-zeituni-onyango/"},"headline":"Barack Obama's Aunt Has Died","datePublished":"2014-04-08T21:43:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:12:14.234Z","description":"Zeituni Onyango, the stepsister of the president's father, was born in Kenya and granted asylum in 2010 after years of fighting deportation. She was 61","url":"https://time.com/54320/barack-obama-aunt-dies-zeituni-onyango/","keywords":["Immigration","politics"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4a7d99d01aaafd16/69868997361760b3ab90b5c0/ap091124061218.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Frizell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4a7d99d01aaafd16/69868997361760b3ab90b5c0/ap091124061218.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Zeituni Onyango","caption":"Zeituni Onyango","creditText":"Josh Reynolds—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/immigration/","name":"Immigration"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/54320/barack-obama-aunt-dies-zeituni-onyango/","name":"Barack Obama's Aunt Has Died"}}]}] ```