Bruce Springsteen’s Mother Passes Away

(RepublicanPress.org) – Bruce Springsteen’s mother, Adele Ann Springsteen, has died at the age of 98. A cause of death hasn’t been revealed, but the singer-songwriter said she was “seven years into Alzheimer’s” during his 2017 theatrical performance, “Springsteen on Broadway.” Three years later, he said she couldn’t talk or stand anymore due to the affliction.

Adele spent over 50 years as a legal secretary at a local insurance company. She had two children. Bruce’s sister, Pamela Springsteen, is a photographer and former film actress. Adele was married to Douglas “Dutch” Springsteen, a bus driver of Irish and Dutch ancestry. He died in 1998.

Bruce Springsteen’s mother, Adele Zerilli Springsteen, dies at age 98 https://t.co/8ivLhOylPU

— Guardian news (@guardiannews) February 2, 2024

Springsteen announced his mother’s death on his Instagram account on February 2. He shared a video of them dancing to “In the Mood,” a swing-era standard performed by Glenn Miller. He captioned his post: “Adele Springsteen — May 4, 1925 to January 31, 2024.” He also included an excerpt from his 2018 song “The Wish,” where he sang about laying in bed as a child and listening to his mother’s alarm clock ringing. The singer also recalled hearing her getting ready for work, “the sound of [her] makeup case on the sink.”

Springsteen talked at length about his mother while introducing that song during his Broadway show. He fondly recalled walking his mother home from work as a young child and looking up at her “coal black hair, Italian olive skin,” wearing red lipstick that was the rage in the 1950s.

The singer said that when his mother looked down at him, it was “like the grace of Mary.” He explained that through her gaze, he understood for the first time “how good it feels to feel pride in somebody you love and who loves you back.” Later in the intro, he spoke of his mother’s many attributes, like faith in family, civility, optimism, kindness, and grace. He also noted his mom’s “never-say-die thirst for life.”

Continuing, Springsteen said his mother and her two sisters “learned the jitterbug” and other dances while growing up in the 1940s. He also told the audience that dance hadn’t left her despite Alzheimer’s. Springsteen said the “desire and need to dance” remained “an essential and primal part” of who his mother was, adding that it was “beyond language […] more powerful than memory.”