80-year-old graduates six decades after dropping out

OMAHA, Neb. (KETV) - A lot of people take a semester off during college, even a year or longer.

But a Nebraska woman needed more time than that. A lot more.

It was about 60 years ago when University of Nebraska - Omaha student Madeline Adams had to pause her education to care for her family.

She graduated this month, proving it’s never too late to achieve one’s goals.

Adams, now 80 years old, started school at the university when the mascot was still “The Indians” back in 1960.

“Well, life happened,” she said. “Expecting, married, second child, third child, divorced, moved out of state.”

Adams moved to Missouri and worked real estate for 15 years before ending up in Hawaii and then Arizona before settling with her daughter, Robin Wright.

“My daughter, who lives in Texas, she’s here today. She begged me to come visit her,” Adams said.

While getting her mother moved in, Wright noticed something.

“I noticed that she had 40 credits from UNO, and I said, ‘Mom, why don’t you just finish?’” Wright said.

Adams enrolled and did online classes, crediting her daughter for pushing her across the finish line.

“She’s the wind beneath my wings, she really is, and she’s my biggest cheerleader,” Adams said.

Wright would say her mom did the flying on her own.

“She would always kind of jokingly say we were the smart ones, but I was like, ‘Mom you made us. You (are) the one who taught us,’” Wright said.

Wright calls her mother an inspiration.

“I didn’t realize the whole thing was that they were 19 when they had one and 22 when they had all three of us, and she really dropped out to work for us,” Wright said.

Adams said she’s finally putting a period on her education career.

“I always told my children, ‘Don’t start anything you can’t finish,’ so I had to be the example, right?” she said.

Adams said she plans to take her degree and use it for her volunteer work.

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