The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Mason Bierce,[3] Adams was born in San Antonio, Texas, but her family moved to California when she was two.

On July 27, 1940, Adams married Ensign J. C. H. Smith, a United States Navy officer, in Norfolk, Virginia.

[3] He was declared dead on September 15, 1943, in Hawaii, after becoming missing in action during World War II when his ship sank a year earlier.

[11] On July 14, 1945, in Hollywood, California,[12] she married Thomas K. Turnage,[13] an Army lieutenant who went on to become a decorated major general.

Turnage served in the Korean War and earned the Distinguished Service Medal and Bronze Star.