Jean Seberg was born in Marshalltown, Iowa, the daughter of Dorothy Arline (née Benson; July 11, 1909 – March 7, 1997), a substitute teacher, and Edward Waldemar Seberg (October 2, 1906 – September 5, 1984), a pharmacist.[4][5][6] Her family was Lutheran and of Swedish, English, and German ancestry.[6][7][8] Her paternal grandfather, Edward Carlson, arrived in the U.S. in 1882 and observed, "there are too many Carlsons in the New World". He decided to change the family's last name to Seberg in memory of the water and mountains of Sweden.[9] Jean had a sister Mary-Ann (b. August 27, 1936), a brother Kurt (b.