Adams was married to actor/writer Jim Beaver in 1989; their daughter Madeline was born in 2001. Adams, though a non-smoker, died of lung cancer on March 3, 2004, at the age of 46, in Los Angeles, California. Her husband's memoir, Life's That Way, details her last few months. She was cremated and her ashes scattered at Fern Canyon in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, California, and at Franklin Canyon Park in Beverly Hills, California.