10/02/2025
Norwich, GB 5 C
Researching and reporting on the lives of some really interesting people (RIP)

ADELE SPRINGSTEEN, aged 98

FIND YOURSELF A LITTLE ROCK ’N’ ROLL BAR, AND GO OUT AND DANCE

Born Adele Ann Zerelli in the Bay Ridge area of Brooklyn, she was part of an American-Italian family. She had two elder sisters, Dora and Eda.

Adele’s family moved to Freehold in New Jersey when she was very small. She always considered herself a New Jersey girl. The family were devout Catholics and Adele was a regular worshipper at the St. Rose of Lima church in the town.

She attended Freehold High School and won the ‘Best Dancer in Class’ award.

After the war, a cousin set her up on a blind date, with army veteran Doug Springsteen. They were married shortly afterwards.

They had three children, Pamela, Bruce and Virginia (Ginny).

Doug, Bruce and Ginny (courtesy Bad Scooter)

Doug worked as a bus driver and later at the Ford Plant in Edison. He had a string of blue-collar jobs. He suffered depression all of his life.

Adele became the main bread winner, working as a legal secretary at the Lawyer’s Title building in Freehold. It was a job she did for 47 years.

Her son, Bruce, remembered going to her workplace. “I’d visit her at her job sometimes, and it was filled with men and women who seemed to have a purpose. I found a lot of inspiration in those simple acts.”

He also remembered, “She’d be looking down at me with a look that for me, was like the grace of Mary. It made me understand for the first time, how good it feels, to feel pride in somebody that you love and who loves you back.”

Nevertheless, times were tough for the family. Money was scarce.

Adele scrimped and saved, and for Christmas when he was seven, she bought Bruce a new Japanese guitar from Diehl’s Music Centre.

Adele loved music. The radio (on top of the refrigerator) was always on in the kitchen – and in the car. Elvis Presley was her favourite.

In 1969, the family relocated to California. Bruce, an older teenager decided to stay in New Jersey, in an attempt to pursue a career in music. He stayed with members of his new backing group, The E-Street Band.

Adele was proud when Bruce released his first two albums, although neither was a great commercial success. Bruce remembered, “She was always trying to make me go back to college – ‘become an author. That’s a good life. You could get a little something for yourself.”

Everything changed with the release of ‘Born to Run’ in 1975. Bruce became an international star.

Born To Run (courtesy Sister Ray Records)

Adele kept a scrapbook of everything her son did.

She was asked what it was like to see her son’s image everywhere. “There aren’t any words to describe it. What would you do if your kid was smiling at you from every magazine in town?”

Adele didn’t neglect her daughters. “All our children are nice children. We’re proud of them all.”

Early Days (courtesy Brucebase Wiki)

Doug died of a stroke in 1998, aged 73. Bruce admitted he had a difficult relationship with his father. “If you said, ‘Love you Pop’, the best you could get was, ‘Eh, me too.”

Bruce and his Dad (courtesy The Times)

Adele moved back east to be close to her family, and Bruce bought her a house.

It was then that Adele made her first appearance alongside her son. She made a cameo appearance on the video of his single ‘Dancing in The Dark’.

In a 2002 interview, Bruce said, “I took after my Mom in a certain sense. Her life had an incredible consistency – work, work, work, every day, and I admired her greatly.”

He told his biographer, Dave Marsh, that she was, “Real smart, real strong, real creative…with a refusal to be disheartened.”

His song ‘The Wish’, is all about her bringing him up. He also mentions her family in ‘American Life’, when he honours, “The McNicholases, the Polaskis, the Smiths and Zerellis too.”

Even when he was famous, Bruce would take his mother dancing in New Jersey night spots such as The Wonder Bar in Asbury Park. “My mother loves to dance. She grew up in the 40s with the big bands and the swing bands, and that was a time when dancing was an existential act.”

Everybody knew Adele for her absolute joy of life. She used to say to her children (and later on, her grandchildren), “Find yourself a little Rock ‘n’ Roll bar and go out and dance.”

She had an excellent relationship with Patti Sciafa, Bruce’s wife.

In 2010, Bruce gave a speech at Ellis Island. He appeared on stage with Adele and her two sisters. He said, “She held our family together.”

After that, Adele began to appear on stage with him, and quickly became a fan favourite. She even sang backing vocals on his version of the Beatles’ ‘Twist and Shout’ at the New Jersey Met Life Stadium in 2012.

That same year, in Bruce’s biography, Adele said, “I think with all the problems we had in our lives, God has rewarded me. I thank God for that; I could cry over it. It’s terrible to brag. But I can brag because I’m the mother, right? It’s hard to believe he’s my son.”

In 2016, she danced to ‘Ramrod’ on stage at Madison Square Garden, and was praised for her hip-wiggling performance. She was also becoming a social media star.

However, in private, the family realised that all was not well. In 2021, Bruce announced his mother had dementia. By now she had six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Out walking (courtesy Facebook)

Her scrapbook was donated to the Monmouth County Historical Society Museum in Freehold. There, it is on display as part of a ‘Bruce Springsteen: Hometown’ exhibition.

Adele died at her home in Little Silver, New Jersey. Bruce posted an earlier video of her dancing with him to Glenn Miller’s ‘In the Mood’, another of her favourites. He said that although she couldn’t speak or stand at the end, when he played her this song, she still moved to the music in her chair.

For her funeral, the family requested everybody to, “Dance in lieu of sending flowers.”

Her own words were read out at the funeral – “As long as we’re happy, healthy and we love each other, that’s the whole thing.”

Steve Van Zandt, guitarist of the E-Street Band, said, “She was the matriarch of our family and an unrelenting source of inspiring positive energy. One of a kind. She will always be there for us. Dancing in the audience.”

RIP = Rock’s Instrumental Parent

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