By Scott Sullivan
Editor
Olivia “Liv” Holmes no longer lives in her Saugatuck home but in an apartment near Kalamazoo College where she is a junior — and double agent.
Every so often she slips off to Washington D.C. to campaign for Franklin D. (and don’t forget Eleanor) Roosevelt, America’s only four-term President from 1933 to 1945.
FDR, paralyzed by polio from the waist down at age 39 in 1921, presided over recovery from the Great Depression and the verge of victory in World War II, all while keeping his wheelchair and leg braces out of public view, before his rendezvous with coronary thrombosis.
A figure worthy of more than one in the Monument City. He and Holmes hooked up through a K-College Study Away and Study Abroad program internship last year that, like D.C.’s cherry blossoms, has bloomed.
She now holds a paid post as FDR Memorial Legacy Committee special assistant to the executive director.
D.C. hosts two monuments for the late Squire of Hyde Park. “The older one, which stands in front of the National Archives, is about the size of president’s desk,” she says. “Just an ordinary desk, not like today’s.
Then there’s the 7.5-acre FDR Memorial, between Lincoln and Jefferson ones southwest of the Tidal Basin. Designed by landscape architect Lawrence Halprin, it boasts four outdoor rooms for each term, red South Dakota granite walls engraved with 21 of FDR’s famous quotes, cascading waterfalls that symbolize the, at times, tumultuous nature of his presidency, two bronze sculptures of him in his wheelchair, another of Eleanor‚ who redefined a First Lady’s role, and one of their dog Fala. It is open 24 hours daily, free.
It’s the nonprofit Legacy’s 25th anniversary, so part of Holmes’ not-so-secret mission to help plan May 12 and 13 commemorations with cherry blossoms at their peak.
Not a bad gig for a still-undergraduate. “It’s a pretty good wage for a college student too,” she says.
As she builds connections in D.C she fortifies hers with parents John Holmes, a diesel mechanic who in his 50s needs dialysis, and Karen Holmes, who manages the Sisters in Ink screen-printing business in a strip mall at 3467 Blue Star Hwy.
Does she like west Michigan better than D.C. “She hates Washington,” says her grandmother, Ellen Rininger of Saugatuck.
Liv is more diplomatic. “The capital is a fascinating, beautiful and full of opportunity,” she says. “But yes, here’s my home.”
May 12 festivities include a five-speaker panel, co-chaired by Franklin and Eleanor’s grandson James Roosevelt, J.D., discussing “A Landscape of Memory: Art and Design at the FDR Memorial and the Art of a Seamless Collaboration.”
Roosevelt will return next day to engage with six more speakers and performance by Nigerian-born artist Lachi, author of “I Identify as Blind,” Recording Artists and Musician Professionals with Disabilities (RAMPD) CEO, producer of the Chad Redding’s album “The Colors in my Mind,” highlighting Neurodiversity themes and nominated for a Grammy Award in November 2025.
Inspiring models, although some less so, for a former SPS drum major and thespian who appeared in old Red Barn Theater’s last show “The Wizard of Oz.”
Click your heels together three times and you can’t wait to see what’s next.
