President Obama Loses Aunt To Breast Cancer

President Obama’s aunt, Zeituni Onyango, who won asylum in 2010 after living illegally in Boston for several years, died on Monday night in a nursing home in the city, her legal team said.

The law office of Margaret W. Wong, one of Onyango’s immigration lawyers, confirmed on Tuesday that she died the night before in her sleep at the Kindred Nursing and Rehabilitation Harborlights facility in South Boston.

Onyango, 61, had taken ill in January and suffered from breast cancer and respiratory problems, Wong and a relative said. Information on funeral arrangements was not available.

The White House had no comment on Onyango’s passing. She was a native of Kenya and moved to South Boston in 2000, Wong’s office said. She was the half-sister of Obama’s late father.

A receptionist at the South Boston nursing home where Onyango died said on Tuesday that no one was available to speak with the media.