Honolulu, HI – Ivalee Sinclair learned about her husband’s brush with history at the same time as the rest of the world. On Wednesday, the widow of Honolulu obstetrician David Sinclair printed a copy of President Barack Obama’s full birth certificate from the Internet, and said she recognized the familiar left-handed cursive on the document.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
“It’s my husband’s signature,” she said referring to the name signed below that of Obama’s mother in the spot for “signature of attendant.”
Obama released the birth certificate in response to long-running questions about whether he was actually born in the United States and eligible to be president.
Sinclair, who died in 2003 at 81, had an obstetrics and gynecology practice in Honolulu and delivered babies all over Hawaii when Obama was born in 1961, said his son Karl Sinclair, 55, of Kailua.
Relatives said that while they previously never made the connection, looking back it makes sense that Sinclair delivered Obama because there were few obstetricians in Honolulu at the time. His six children grew up accustomed to him leaving home at all hours and holidays to deliver babies.
The family first heard about Sinclair’s connection to Obama because one of their relatives was awake at 3 a.m. watching the news and saw the signature, said Dawn Yoshimura-Sinclair, who is married to another Sinclair son, Brian Sinclair.
“We can attest to the fact that it is indeed dad’s signature,” Yoshimura-Sinclair said. “It’s not a common name over here. There’s no confusion that it was dad.”
Ivalee Sinclair said her husband never discussed his patients and that delivering a black child born to a white mother wouldn’t be a detail he would focus on.
“He never would have brought anything like that up,” she said. “He delivered a lot of children. I have no idea how many.”
Born in Portland, Ore., Sinclair moved to Hawaii at 15 because his father was an engineer who helped build Wilson tunnel on Oahu. The doctor joined the military after hearing the Pearl Harbor bombing from his front lawn, Ivalee Sinclair said. He was an Army pilot and witnessed so much death during the war that he became a doctor so he could have a career focusing on giving life.
“I think he became a doctor because he was concerned about all the people who died in the war,” his widow said. “I think he wanted to do something to make up for that.”
Ivalee Sinclair met her future husband during trigonometry class at the University of Hawaii, where he enrolled after the war. He later went to medical school at the University of California at San Francisco, where he completed his residency.
Sinclair returned to Honolulu with his wife and children in 1960. He delivered babies mostly at the hospital now known as Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children, just a couple miles from his home and the one listed as Obama’s place of birth.
The Sinclair sons said they imagine their father would be thrilled that one of the babies he delivered grew up to be president.
“I’m just honored and proud of my father,” Karl Sinclair said.
“I think it’s great,” said Brian Sinclair, who followed his father into medicine. “Hawaii was a very small place back then so I guess I’m not surprised.”
Brian Sinclair graduated from the same high school as Obama but didn’t know him personally.
The Sinclair family includes Obama supporters and those who didn’t vote for him. They hope the birth certificate will end the speculation over Obama.
“To me, the birth certificate doesn’t lie,” Karl Sinclair said. “I think that should put everything to bed.”
Oy vey!
Just wait… soon the loonies will be claiming that this woman is really a secret Al Qaeda spy who had her skin lightened to “fit-in”, then forged the certificate after killing off her husband so nobody could question him about it. LOL
This story is the gift that keeps on giving! I just wish there weren’t so man stupid frum yidden out there falling for this nonsense.
Very clever. They chose a doctor who isn’t alive to deny the claim that he delivered Obama in Hawaii, and then they pasted his signature on a forged document.
This matter should be closed. However, our esteemed leader did not help matters by digging in his heels for the last 2.5 years, and refusing to authorize the release of his birth certificate. It took Donald Trump to act as a catalyst to have it released.
A poshiter yid would say… but wait a minute!
He was born on Aug-4 right? The doctor is there and signs there. The doctor who is there doesn’t sign 4 days later, on the 8th??? I mean, even us yidden who can’t sign for the name, have it signed by the doctor immediately. It’s not like they come back and sign later. This form is filled out immediately by the desk, and then the doctor signs it the same day.
When someone signs it four days later … Imagine a notary signing a document four days after you sign it. LOL! Proof or Poof?
Idiocrats, slow down, aint no ‘birther’. Just wondering, how is that working there?
You see four days is a lot of time to make sure things are cool, the doctor signing etc. A lot of time.
But there is an article, i can’t put the link here on the examiner if you want search for it, very interesting.
All I want to say, this is more smokescreen for to chew on, and not an answer.
Its amazing how many idiots there are out there. There is no reason to doubt the authenticity of this birth certificate and every reason to believe that it is legitimate. But we go back to the same problem that effecting our community in so many ways, which is the increasingly extremely insular nature of our communities and yeshivos in the vacuum in which we live.
I aint no birther. I have no problems with the birth certificate. Just that no one is bringing up one little detail. he was born here. fine. but he was taken to INDONESIA for schooling by his step father. to go to school there you need Indonesian citizenship which doesnt allow for dual citizenship. His American was given up. He never signed the form (very simple to do) that says “my citizenship was taken from me as a minor without my permission and I want it back”. ooops!
As late as the early 1970’s Physicians would routinely keep newborns and their mothers in the hospital for 4-5 days, even with normal deliveries. In those cases, the birth certificates were not always filled out, in a timely manner. Sometimes, parents could not expeditiously decide on a name of the baby, to be noted on a birth certificate. Secondly, someone doesn’t automatically lose their citizenship, by residing in a foreign country. Does that mean that American Jews who make Aliyah to Eretz Yisrael, automatically lose their American citizenship? Of course, it doesn’t. However, Obama could have put the brakes on this matter during the 2008 campaign, by revealing his official birth certificate. What was the problem in doing so?