Beatty Zimmerman: Inside the Life Of Bob Dylan’s mother

Beatty Zimmerman is the mother of celebrated singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Beatty Zimmerman’s son is a musical icon of folk and rock music and the voice of his generation. The singer has been a significant figure in popular culture over his 60-year career. Much of Dylan’s most celebrated work dates from the 1960s, when songs such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” (1963) and “The Times They Are a-Changin'” (1964) became anthems for the civil rights and antiwar movements. 

Beatty Zimmerman: Bio Summary

Who was Bob Dylan’s mother?

Beatty Zimmerman was born on June 13, 1915, in  Hibbing, Minnesota, United States of America. She was the daughter of Lybba Edelstein and Benjamin Edelstein and the sister of  Irene Stone Goldfine, Vernon Stone, and Lewis Label Stone. She was the second child of the couple’s four children. Beatty was from a prominent Jewish family in the Iron Range town of Hibbing. The Stones were a musical family and Beatty learned to play the piano at a very young age.

How did Bob Dylan’s parents meet?

Bob Dylan’s parents Beatty Zimmerman and Abram Zimmerman met at a New Year’s party when she went to Duluth to visit relatives. Beatty’s aunt, Ethel Crystal who was like a sister to her because they were close in age introduced Beatty to Abram Zimmerman. According to the New York Times, Abram was a quiet, almost withdrawn, young man while Beatty was vivacity itself, but their differences were complementary.

ALSO, READ; Abram Zimmerman: Who was Bob Dylan’s father?

Fast forward, Bob Dylan’s parents tied the knot in a beautiful wedding ceremony at her mother’s home on June 10, 1934, three days after Beatty’s nineteenth birthday. At that time, Abram was 22 years old. The couple honeymooned in Chicago and then came back to live in Duluth with Abe’s mother.

A few years later Abram who worked with Standard Oil was promoted to the management level. Beatty and her husband now had enough money to get their own apartment. They rented a two-bedroom top duplex. Beatty was pregnant when they moved to their new apartment.

A few months later, Beatty Zimmerman gave birth to a baby boy at nearby St. Mary’s Hospital. He weighed seven pounds and one ounce. Four days later given a name- in fact, two names. In Hebrew, he was called Shabtai Zisel ben Avraham. In the wider world, he would be known as Robert Allen Zimmerman.

Bob Dylan and her mother’s relationship.

Bob Dylan has a very close relationship with his mother.  “I think one of the reasons he did have a pretty decent childhood was because of Beatty,” his boyhood friend John Bucklen told New York Times. “She was a very good mother, a very likable woman.” Around Bob’s tenth birthday, he wrote a poem for Mother’s Day. He wrote that he hoped his mother would never grow old. It was a love letter to his mother.

Beatty Zimmerman spent most of her adult life in Hibbing, Minnesota, where the family moved when Bob was six. Abram Zimmerman operated an appliance store with his brothers, and Beatty was a popular figure in town. “All these years later,” she said in an interview, “I can’t walk down the street there without everybody stopping me to say hello.’

Talking about her son, Beatty said– “Of course, I love everything he does. I’m his mother.” And what’s more, “He’s a remarkable, wonderful man. He’s a very ordinary person; he’s full of compassion; he has no ego. People don’t really know him. But I do, and I’m grateful for it. Every mother should have a son like Bobby.“

What happened to Beatty Zimmerman?

On May 29, 1968, Bob Dylan’s father died of a heart attack in St. Louis County, Minnesota, USA at the age of 57. Beatty moved on and later married Joe Rutman of St. Paul; he also died in 1985.

Bob Dylan’s mother, Beatty Zimmerman died on January 25, 2000, in St. Paul. She was 84. The family released the poem Bob Dylan wrote for her as a young boy on Mother’s Day. It read:

“My dear mother, I hope that you
Will never grow old and gray,
So that all the people in the world will say:
‘Hello, young lady, Happy Mother’s Day.’”