Adda Quinn: Larry Ellison’s First Wife and What Is Actually Known About Her
Adda Quinn is best known as the first wife of Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle. The two married in 1967 and divorced in 1974, years before Oracle existed. Beyond those facts, very little about her life is documented in reliable sources, and that is largely because she has stayed out of the public eye.
If you searched her name, you have probably landed on pages full of confident details: degrees, careers, children, a home address. Most of those claims do not hold up. This guide sticks to what can be traced to credible biographical sources, explains where the gaps are, and flags the claims you should treat with caution.
Adda Quinn at a Glance
| Detail | What is known |
|---|---|
| Full name | Adda Quinn |
| Known for | First wife of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison |
| Marriage | 1967 |
| Divorce | 1974 |
| How they met | Reportedly at an employment agency in Berkeley, California |
| Age and birth date | Not publicly confirmed |
| Education and career | Not reliably documented |
| Current life | Private |
Who Is Adda Quinn?
Adda Quinn is an American woman who entered the public record through her marriage to Larry Ellison. Ellison, born in New York in 1944 and raised in Chicago, went on to build one of the largest database software companies in the world. When he married Quinn, none of that had happened yet. He was in his early twenties, had left college without a degree, and had not settled into a steady career.
In other words, Quinn’s place in history is tied to the years before success. That is precisely why she shows up in every detailed Ellison biography, yet almost never as a subject in her own right.
You may also see her name spelled “Ada Quinn” in some places. The two spellings are generally used for the same person, but “Adda” is the spelling used in the biographical records we reviewed.
Why So Little Is Known About Her
Most people who marry a future billionaire do not become public figures themselves, and Quinn appears to have chosen that route. She has not given widely circulated interviews, written a memoir, or built a public profile. Without a primary source, anything written about her education, employers or daily life is guesswork.
This matters for readers. When a website states her exact birth year, the university she attended or the town she lives in, it usually has no source to back it up. A responsible profile should say “not publicly confirmed” instead of filling the gap. That is the approach we take here, and it is also a matter of respect: she is a private individual, not a celebrity who invited this attention.
How She Met Larry Ellison
According to a biographical entry on Encyclopedia.com, Ellison moved to Berkeley, California in the mid-1960s and met Quinn shortly afterwards at a Berkeley employment agency. They married in 1967.
This is a useful detail because it contradicts a claim repeated on several lifestyle sites, which say the two met as students at the University of Chicago. The more credible account places their meeting in Berkeley, during a period when Ellison was drifting between jobs and had not yet found his direction in computing.
The Early Years of the Marriage
The marriage lasted about seven years. Biographical accounts describe a couple living with limited money while Ellison searched for a career. He moved between technical jobs and, by most accounts, struggled with direction and debt during this time.
Those same accounts suggest the strain of that instability played a large part in the end of the marriage. It is worth treating this carefully. These are characterisations from a biography of Ellison, written from his side of the story, and they cannot tell us how Quinn herself experienced those years.
The 1974 Divorce
The marriage ended in 1974. The most repeated anecdote from this period comes from Mike Wilson’s biography of Ellison, The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison, as summarised by Encyclopedia.com. During a session with a marriage counsellor, while the couple was separating, Ellison reportedly decided that he wanted to become a millionaire. Quinn is said to have told him to pursue that goal for his own sake, since she was leaving regardless.
As with any biographical anecdote, it is a retelling rather than a verified transcript, so it should be read as part of Ellison’s personal legend rather than as settled fact. What is firmly established is the timeline: married 1967, divorced 1974.
What Happened After: Ellison and Oracle
To understand why Quinn’s story is often misreported, it helps to see the order of events.
- Mid-1960s: Ellison moves to California, as noted by the Jewish Virtual Library, which also records that he later worked at Amdahl and then Ampex.
- 1967: Ellison and Quinn marry.
- 1970s: At Ampex, Ellison works on a database project for the CIA that carries the code name “Oracle”.
- 1974: The marriage ends.
- 1977: Ellison co-founds the company that would become Oracle Corporation.
Because the divorce came before the company was founded, there is no credible basis for claims that Quinn received a share of Oracle or of Ellison’s later fortune. Websites that discuss her “net worth” are speculating. No reliable source documents her finances.
Larry Ellison’s Marriages in Context
Quinn was the first of several marriages for Ellison. Per Encyclopedia.com, he later married Nancy Wheeler in 1976 (divorced 1978), Barbara Boothe in 1983 (divorced 1987), and Melanie Craft in 2003. Seeing the full list explains why Quinn is sometimes confused with other wives in poorly researched articles. Each marriage has its own dates and details, and mixing them up is one of the most common errors online.
For a broader view of his life and career, the Larry Ellison page on Wikipedia is a good starting point.
Claims About Adda Quinn You Should Treat With Caution
Search results about Quinn contain many details that appear on multiple sites but cannot be traced to a primary source. We have left these out of this article on purpose:
- Children. Several sites state she and Ellison had children together. Biographical entries we reviewed list Ellison’s children (David and Margaret) as being with his later wife, Barbara Boothe, not with Quinn.
- University of Chicago. The claim that she met Ellison there conflicts with the Berkeley account above.
- A named employer and job title. Some pages describe a specific corporate career. We found no primary record confirming it.
- A second marriage and its details. Some sites name a later spouse. Without a reliable source, we do not repeat it.
- Where she lives now. This is private information about a private person, and we do not publish or guess it.
If you read a detailed biography of her that includes none of these caveats, it is likely built from other websites rather than from original research.
Why Her Story Still Matters
Quinn’s story is a reminder that famous lives are surrounded by people whose stories go untold. She stands at the point in Ellison’s biography where the struggle is most visible, before the money and before the company. She also stands for a choice many people in her position make, which is to step away from attention and live privately.
For readers and writers, it is also a lesson in source quality. A short, accurate profile that admits what is unknown is more useful than a long one that invents details.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Adda Quinn?
Adda Quinn is the first wife of Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle Corporation. They were married from 1967 to 1974.
When did Adda Quinn marry Larry Ellison?
They married in 1967, reportedly after meeting at an employment agency in Berkeley, California.
Why did Adda Quinn and Larry Ellison divorce?
The marriage ended in 1974. Biographical accounts point to financial strain and Ellison’s lack of direction at the time, but the couple has not given a detailed public explanation.
Did Adda Quinn help start Oracle?
There is no credible evidence that she did. Oracle’s origins date to the late 1970s, after the divorce.
Did Adda Quinn and Larry Ellison have children?
Reliable biographical entries list Ellison’s children as being from a later marriage. Claims that Quinn had children with him are not supported by the sources we reviewed.
How old is Adda Quinn?
Her age and date of birth have not been publicly confirmed.
What is Adda Quinn’s net worth?
No reliable source documents it. Figures on other websites are estimates without evidence.
Where does Adda Quinn live today?
This is not publicly confirmed, and as a private individual her personal details should be respected.
Final Thoughts
The verified story of Adda Quinn is short: she married Larry Ellison in 1967 when he was far from successful, and the two divorced in 1974, a few years before Oracle was founded. Everything beyond that is either private or unconfirmed. If more reliable information emerges, we will update this page.
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