He was raised as a Christian Scientist and spent his early childhood in Leland, Mississippi, before moving with his family to Hyattsville, Maryland, near Washington, D.C., in the late 1940s.
Раннее детство он провёл в городке Лиланд (Миссисипи), в конце 1940-х годов его семья переехала в Хьятсвилл (Мэриленд) около Вашингтона.