Complex sentence: Alan Lightman is a physicist, novelist, and essayist born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1948, son of Richard Lightman, a movie theater owner, and Jeanne Garretson, a dancing teacher and volunteer Braille typist.
Split into simpler sentences: Alan Lightman is a physicist, novelist, and essayist born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1948. Lightman was born the son of Richard Lightman, a movie theater owner, and Jeanne Garretson, a dancing teacher and volunteer Braille typist.