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You hear it when you talk to her on the phone. You see it when you meet her in person.
And, if you're not careful, it'll rub off on you.
That smile serves her well. It helps her deal with guests as front desk manager at the Holiday Inn. Most importantly, it helps her deal with the ignorance she often faces as a 26-year-old African-American woman.
"If you don't laugh, you're going to be miserable and turn into a hateful person," Adams said.
And that's not how she and her 30-year-old sister Tanya were raised.
"Our parents always told us we were going to encounter it but not to get angry," Adams said. "Let them know you're aware of it but don't get angry."
This weekend, the first Winona citywide Martin Luther King Jr. celebration will celebrate King's dream with a variety of cultural and educational events. The event is a collaboration among community leaders, representatives from Saint Mary's University, Winona State University, the Winona Human Rights Commission and the African American Mutual Assistance Network, a group her father, Cecil Adams Jr., founded.
Adams helped coordinate the event and hopes it becomes an annual tradition.
"I'm hoping everyone comes and learns something," Adams said.
One of the things Adams has learned is how to deal with racism.
Instead of getting mad when a clerk follows her through a store, Adams has a little fun — weaving in and out of aisles and then leaving without buying anything.
When an insurance salesman told her a story about a "colored" person over the phone, Adams showed up to his office, smiling while telling him he wouldn't be getting her business.
When strangers see her at a stoplight and promptly lock their doors, she'll mockingly lock hers as well.
When someone at the grocery store appears to be going out of their way to avoid contact, Adams will fake sneeze and watch their horrified reaction.
It's not always what it appears to be. Once a man wearing sunglasses appeared to be staring at Adams and her mother, Valjean, while the two were shopping. Turns out the guy was just blind.
But because she's black, she has to wonder — are people seeing her or her skin color?
"It may not be fair but you need to deal with it," Adams said.
That's what Adams is teaching her six-year-old daughter Juvirn. She's biracial so people often assume Adams is merely babysitting.
Adams says people also assume that everyone black who lives in Winona is from Milwaukee, Chicago or that they're just visiting.
Adams was born in Philadelphia but moved to Cerritos, Calif., when she was 3. When she was 13, the family moved to Medford, Ore., and later Ashland, Ore.
While the Ku Klux Klan is usually associated with the South, Adams said it was alive and well in Oregon.
"People think it's all spotted owls and tree huggers but it's not," Adams said. "We knew it was time to move when the Klan got real bad."
Her father got a job as cultural diversity coordinator at Winona State University so the family moved to Winona.
"Not again" was Adams' reaction as she encountered some of the same kinds of racism she faced before.
"You notice things being an African American," Adams said.
But Adams gives every person a chance — she just wishes others would do the same.
She's learned to speak up, hold her head high and take satisfaction in her success. She's learned to put up with stupid questions about what she uses to wash her hair (shampoo, of course) and does her best to smile.
"I could easily be one of those mean hateful people but it's not in my nature."
