Piper Laurie was born Rosetta Jacobs in Detroit, Michigan, on January 22, 1932. Laurie was the younger of two daughters born to furniture dealer Alfred Jacobs and his wife, Charlotte Sadie ( Alperin) Jacobs. Her paternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Poland and her maternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Russia.
In her 2011 autobiography Learning to Live Out Loud, Laurie said she was born in her family's one-bedroom walk-up on Tyler Street in Detroit. To combat her shyness, her parents provided her with weekly elocution lessons.
Laurie's mother and grandmother placed Laurie's older sister in a sanitarium for her asthma. Laurie was sent along to keep her company.
