From Roosevelt to Resistance

At the Kids’ Table

On June 14th, millions took to the streets to protest the authoritarian regime of Donald Trump. The message was simple: No Kings.

In Ann Arbor, where over 7,000 gathered to rally and march, Adele Bayer watched a small girl of 5 or 6 make a sign with her mother. The mother spelled out a word slowly: N-O. The girl enthusiastically filled the poster board, writing the word “no” over and over. Adele looked on, delighted. She wondered if this was the girl’s first protest.

It was hers.

Adele is 105 years old.

The Weight of Joy and Sorrow

I met with Adele Bayer in her daughter Renee's comfortable home in Ann Arbor. Adele, born in Pontiac, Michigan, in 1919, speaks with a strong, steady voice. Her daughter, Renee, says that, like many superagers, her mom is an upbeat, mentally active person who is curious about the world. 

At 105, Adele’s life reflects the full weight of joy and sorrow. She lived through the Great Depression, the rise of the Nazi regime, World War II, and two pandemics. Her father died of the 1918 influenza pandemic before she was old enough to know him — an event which colored her entire life. She tells me this plainly, not for sympathy but as record: her life began in a pandemic and would circle back to one again.

After the death of her father just one month after Adele’s birth, Adele’s newly single mother worked in Detroit  struggling to make ends meet.  Adele spent much of her childhood with her grandparents, who she says were very good to her but sometimes lacked the energy to be engaging companions for a child. 

She always voted. Her first ballot was cast for Roosevelt, who remains her favorite president. “Roosevelt got things done,” she remembers, “but he did it legally.” Still, she never considered herself political. Now, Adele says she is frustrated, angry, and heartbroken about the changes in the United States since Donald Trump was first elected president in 2016. She says, “This was the land of the free and the home of the brave, but it’s not now.”

From Then to Now

Adele tells of her family’s immigration to America.  Her grandparents and parents, who were Jewish, immigrated to the United States starting in 1912 to escape oppression and violence targeting Jewish communities in their native Poland. Adele is proud that the United States provided a safe haven for her family. She says, "They worked very hard, but it didn't matter, because they were free.” Later, she addresses the Holocaust with heartbreaking honesty. “I lost a large family in Europe,” she says. “They were all taken to a camp [...] and I understand that they just were starved to death.”

She does not compare then to now; she does not need to. “All of the other horrible things were in different countries. Now, this is affecting us right here in our own country and it’s being destroyed,” she says.

Growing Up Together

Adele graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in pediatric nursing. In 1941, just a few weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that thrust the United States into World War II, she married Harmon Bayer, a fellow University of Michigan alumnus and a chemical engineer.  Harmon enlisted in the army, where he served in the Public Health Corps.  After the war, Adele settled into life as a stay-at-home mom, raising three sons and a daughter. She says, "My whole life has been really with the children. I love them." She remembers the social upheaval of the 1960s and 1970s but says, "l didn't do anything. I wasn't political." She explains that she was “busy being a mother and growing up with [the kids]. I needed to grow up too, because”—growing up, largely separated from her mother—”I never had a childhood.” 

Although Adele insists she wasn’t involved in politics, her daughter, Renee, remembers conversations with her parents about the women's movement, civil rights, and the Vietnam War. Harmon Bayer, a loving and broad-minded person, opened up Adele’s world, including traveling with her to Israel. Now, Adele has visited Israel more than 50 times, most recently to celebrate her 100th birthday. Adele says, “It was my biggest dream to go there when I was 100.”  Much of the political action in the family home focused on supporting Israel and Jewish people. In many ways, this was the only kind of activism Adele knew: private, familial, tied to identity. 

Waking Up

The four Bayer children grew up to work in humanitarian professions, including healthcare, social work, and education. It was Adele's daughter, Renee, a retired academic specialist who worked in public health and science education at the University of Michigan and Michigan State, who led her to a more active political life.

Adele’s political consciousness emerged during the COVID-19 lockdown, the second global health crisis of her life. In March 2020, Governor Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency in response to the arrival of COVID-19 in Michigan. Adele, then 101 years old, was living in her small apartment in a senior community in West Bloomfield. Adele’s children, who were determined that their mother live out her second pandemic safely, brought Adele to Renee’s home in Ann Arbor to shelter in place together.

"It was when I came here and I was with them that I woke up," Adele says.

During those quiet months, she spent long days watching cable news with her family. She discovered The Rachel Maddow Show.

“I never knew her before, but now she has become my hero," Adele says, grinning. "The other one, of course, is Lawrence O’Donnell. He's amazing. I love when they banter back and forth. That's really the best."

Now back at her beloved senior community, Adele subscribes to cable TV so she can stay up-to-date with the news, and she faithfully watches the Rachel Maddow show on Monday nights, often joined by her son, Chuck.

For the Children

Adele does not hide her feelings. She feels genuine anger at the erosion of democracy in her country. "I feel like the whole country is falling apart. It's just not my country," she says. "I don't feel free, and I don't feel brave. This [the protest and the interview] is being brave because I never did anything like this before. It's invigorating to be able to do something, you know?" 

Throughout our conversation, Adele keeps circling back to the same concern: children. 

“Children are hopeful and enthusiastic. They believe what they're doing is going to matter," she says. "We have to think about the children who are being affected by this government. For me, children are the future. That’s who we have to take care of.” 

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