When Adena Hansen was born on 1 June 1898, in Blair, Washington, Nebraska, United States, her father, Louis Hansen, was 35 and her mother, Mary Beck, was 27. She married Oscar E. Peterson on 2 July 1920, in Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie, Iowa, United States. She died on 10 October 1974, in Richmond, Virginia, United States, at the age of 76, and was buried in Lincoln, Lancaster, Nebraska, United States.