CATHERINE GOODNIGHT DUNHAM
Six degrees of Barack Obama
Catherine Goodnight Dunham is one of the links between Barack Obama and Harry S Truman.
She was Obama's great-great-great-great grandmother, and her first cousin once removed was Rachael Goodnight Young, Truman's great-grandmother.
She was Obama's great-great-great-great grandmother, and her first cousin once removed was Rachael Goodnight Young, Truman's great-grandmother.
If you're keeping score, that makes Truman Obama's fourth cousin four times removed.
(AP file)
(file)
(AP file)
If you're keeping score, that makes Truman Obama's fourth cousin four times removed.
Catherine Goodnight is also the grandniece of George Goodnight, who is the great-grandfather of famed cattle pioneer Charles Goodnight, according to family genealogies.
A former Texas ranger, Charles Goodnight drove cattle from Texas to New Mexico and invented the chuckwagon along the way. He is said to be part of the inspiration for the character Woodrow Call in Larry McMurtry's Pulitzer-prize winning novel Lonesome Dove.
Coincidentally, Call's partner, Augustus McCrae, was played in the movie version of the book by actor Robert Duvall, who is also a distant relation to Obama through Obama's ninth-great grandfather, Mareen Duvall of 17th century Maryland.
And, according to research by William Addams Reitwiesner, Mareen Duvall is also a direct ancestor of -- you guessed it, Harry S Truman.
And Truman was once played by Gary Sinise, who starred with Kevin Bacon in the movie "Apollo 13."