Obama and his grandparents in an undated file photo

Barack Obama told millions watching him accept the Democratic nomination in Denver that his grandmother's influence on who he is and the way he views the world was substantial.

"She's the one who taught me about hard work," he said in August. "She's the one who put off buying a new car or a new dress for herself so that I could have a better life. She poured everything she had into me."

Madelyn Payne Dunham died from cancer late Sunday -only a few days before seeing her grandson become the nation's first black president. She was 86.

"She's gone home," Obama said on Monday as tens of thousands of rowdy supporters at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte grew silent in an evening drizzle. "And she died peacefully in her sleep with my sister at her side. And so there is great joy as well as tears."

Obama lived with his grandparents from 1971 to 1979 in the modest two-bedroom apartment in Honolulu where she died Sunday. The family is planning a small, private ceremony.