Obama attends memorial for his grandmother

updated 8:39 p.m. ET Dec. 23, 2008

HONOLULU - President-elect Barack Obama has attended a memorial service for his grandmother, who helped raise him in his native Hawaii.

Obama, his family and friends attended private services Tuesday for Madelyn Payne Duncan at the First Unitarian Church in the Honolulu neighborhood of Nuuanu.

Duncan, known to friends as "Toot," died Nov. 2, two days before Obama won his election to become the nation's first African-American president.

Obama did not speak to reporters at the small home that had been converted into a church. Aides said Obama's half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, and her husband, Konrad Ng, also were present.

The family planned to scatter Duncan's ashes at a private ceremony later.

The Obamas are vacationing in Hawaii.

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