Born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota. His grandparents were Jewish immigrants from present-day Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, and Turkey. His paternal grandfather was from Trabzon on the Black Sea coast of Turkey. His paternal grandparents sailed from Trabzon to the Black Sea port of Odessa in Ukraine from where they took off to immigrate to America. His parents, Abraham Zimmerman and Beatrice Stone (Beatty), were part of the area's small but close-knit Jewish community. Zimmerman lived in Duluth until age seven. When his father was stricken with polio, the family returned to nearby Hibbing, Beatty's hometown, where Robert Zimmerman spent the rest of his childhood.