Barack Obama's Hawai'i campaign coordinator has clarified the day and time that Obama's maternal grandmother died as about 11 p.m. Hawai'i time on Nov. 2 — two days before her grandson was elected president.

In his first public remarks about Madelyn Dunham's death on the following Monday, Obama told a crowd in Charlotte, N.C., "Some of you heard that my grandmother who helped raise me passed away early this morning."

Dunham, 86, actually died of cancer the night before, Andy Winer said yesterday after getting clarification from Obama's sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, who was by Dunham's side.

A funeral home was then contacted between 1 a.m. and 1:30 a.m. Monday, and representatives came to Dunham's Beretania Street apartment and attended to her body between 3 and 3:30 a.m. Monday, Winer said.

No funeral arrangements have been announced, but Obama's campaign said he plans to fly home to Hawai'i sometime in December, before his Jan. 20 inauguration in Washington.

Soetoro-Ng yesterday resumed teaching at La Pietra-Hawai'i School for Girls but is not making any media statements, Winer said.