Marie Anna Stern was born at home on Washington Ave, Downingtown, PA, the fourth child of Laura P Rothhaas and Roy Elwell Stern. She grew up and attended Downingtown schools, graduating from Downingtown High School in 1945. She and her family were members of Messiah Lutheran Church in Downingtown. She worked in Medical Records at West Chester Hospital after high school. At age 21 she joined the Navy Waves and was stationed at Treasure Island in San Francisco. It was there that she met and fell in love with Myrlan "Pete" Adams of Atascadero, CA. She worked in Medical Records at Mt Zion Hospital in San Francisco after completing her military service. They had an apartment on Green Street in San Francisco. They were married at St Steven's Reformed Church in New Holland, PA in October 1953, with a reception at the nearby home of her oldest brother and sister-in-law, Albert and Alice Stern, where her recently widowed mother, Laura P Rothhaas Stern also lived. For a short time they had an apartment in New Holland. Pete's Navy assignment took them back to California where they purchased a house in a new housing development at 9841 Cerritos Ave in Anaheim. Several other couples, friends from the Navy, also bought houses in the same development. Marie's older sister, Doris Stern Speakman, died in Pennsylvania in November 1955. Marie and Pete adopted Doris' two children, Billy 11 yrs and Kim 1 yr and brought them up in Anaheim and Livermore, CA.
Marie worked full time outside the home and spent her clerical and supervisory career with Lawrence Livermore laboratories, and aerospace companies Aerojet General in San Ramon and then Downey, CA, and Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach. Pete retired a Chief Petty Officer in 1964 after 20 years in the Navy. After a short stint with the Post Office and a catering truck business, he he spent the rest of his career in security at Douglas Aircraft, later known as McDonnel Douglas Aircraft. Marie and Pete enjoyed bowling leagues, fishing and RV camping. They sold their Anaheim home in 1985 and retired, traveling America and eventually purchasing a home near their dear friends Vern and Lu Lundgren at Windmill Resort in Earp, CA, along the Parker Strip recreation area on the Colorado River border of California and Arizona. They enjoyed many travels with their friends and went to many Dixieland music festivals and Worlds Fairs, national parks and to see family. Pete passed away at home of mesothelioma in 1994. Marie continued to live in Earp with her beloved dog Hiedi, except for a six month stay in Berkeley in 2002 near where her children lived while she was recuperating from a broken hip. Her son Bill died in in Livermore, Ca in 2006. She moved to a house on 75th St NW in the Sunset Hill neighborhood of Ballard, Seattle, WA in 2006 to be near her daughter's family as her health grew weak after another broken hip. She passed away during a stay for PT at Columbia Lutheran Home in Seattle in July of 2008. She had three grandchildren and two great grandchildren.