# Has any president other than JFK had a living grandmother during their presidency?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-president-other-than-jfk-had-a-living-grandmother-during-their-presidency/470933>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 3, 2008, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-president-other-than-jfk-had-a-living-grandmother-during-their-presidency/470933 "2008-11-03T22:07:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-president-other-than-jfk-had-a-living-grandmother-during-their-presidency/470933/1 "2008-11-03T22:07:18Z")

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Inspired by the death of Madelyn Dunham at such a coincidental time, but just curious.

I looked up JFK a while back when Obama’s grandmother was being discussed just to see and his maternal grandmother, [Mary Hannon Fitzgerald](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Josephine_Hannon) (widow of “Honey Fitz”) lived until August 1964, surviving her grandson by almost a year. Does anybody know if any other presidents had grandparents who lived to see their election?

It would obviously have to be one of the younger presidents- Clinton or TR perhaps.

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**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-president-other-than-jfk-had-a-living-grandmother-during-their-presidency/470933/2 "2008-11-03T22:12:45Z")

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Not TR – his parents and grandparents were all dead by 1901.

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**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-president-other-than-jfk-had-a-living-grandmother-during-their-presidency/470933/3 "2008-11-03T22:38:21Z")

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And JFK will, unfortunately, still be the only president with a living grandmother during his term.

[Obama’s Grandmother dies.](http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/03/obamas-grandmother-dies/)

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**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2008, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-president-other-than-jfk-had-a-living-grandmother-during-their-presidency/470933/4 "2008-11-03T22:48:21Z")

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Senator Obama’s mother and grandmother were relatively young when they had their children, at ages 18 and 19 respectively, and Senator Obama is going to be relatively young as president. Even so, Madelyn Dunham was 86 years old – this shows how unlikely it is for a US President to have a living grandparent.

(And may Madelyn Dunham rest in peace, having gone this way in the almost certain knowledge that young Barack was going to become president).